Product Release Announcement – PTC ApexAda v5.2 Embedded for Linux/Armv8 64-bit

Product Release Announcement – PTC ApexAda v5.2 Embedded for Linux/Armv8 64-bit

[Shawn Fanning]

On May 19, 2020 PTC announced the release of the PTC ApexAda v5.2 Embedded for Linux/Armv8 64-bit product. This product is the initial product offering based on a new 64-bit code generator for ApexAda for the Armv8 64-bit (aarch64) architecture and is our latest release supporting 64-bit embedded application development.

The host operating system for this product is Intel x64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux v7.x/v8.x (or CentOS equivalent) distribution. Using the Linaro GNU cross-development toolchain for 64-bit Armv8 Cortex-A processors on the Linux/Intel64 host, PTC ApexAda supports the generation of Ada 95 / Ada 2005 application images that execute on ARMv8-A 64-bit (aarch64) processors (for example Arm Cortex A53, A57, A72) running 64-bit embedded Linux distributions.  Examples of embedded Linux distributions which can be supported are openSUSE Leap v15.1, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for Arm v15.1, Ubuntu Server 20.04, Wind River Linux and other Yocto-derived Linux distributions with a 64-bit kernel.  Reference hardware used for the development and test of ApexAda was the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B/B+.  (Raspberry Pi 4 Model B with its larger 4GB RAM configuration and other boards such as the VPX-1703 from Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions can also be supported by ApexAda.)

Included with the 64-bit embedded compiler is the PTC® ApexAda v5.2 64-bit compiler for Linux native application development.  Also included is the integrated ApexAda 64-bit C/C++ compiler which facilitates seamless development of mixed-language applications written in Ada, C, and C++. ApexAda V5.2 Embedded compilers provide a complete cross-development toolchain hosted from Linux distributions including RedHat Enterprise Edition, CentOS, and SUSE. A complete description of PTC ApexAda v5.2 Embedded for Linux/Armv8 64-bit is available within the Product Release Announcement which can be downloaded from https://www.ptc.com/products/developer-tools/apexada .

The addition of the new code generation capability for 64-bit Armv8 processors to ApexAda opens up a whole new landscape for embedded application development using ApexAda. PowerPC processors have for a long time been a design choice for our aerospace and defense customers due to their balance of performance, cost, and power characteristics. Intel processors have offered many of our customers increased performance at a cost of additional complexity and power requirements.  Driven by the mobile consumer market, Arm processors provide high performance and low power advantages over Intel processors. We think these advantages combined with the flexibility provided by embedded Linux distributions and the availability of low-cost and high-performance consumer-grade development boards as well as ruggedized 64-bit Arm boards will provide substantial benefits to our customers looking to modernize existing deployed applications while mitigating risks through continued use of the same time-proven and industrial-strength ApexAda compiler technology. The 64-bit Armv8 (aarch64) processors are now well-known and proven processors with a long lifecycle and there are multiple 64-bit Linux distributions available which run on these processors. Follow-on products leveraging the new ApexAda 64-bit Armv8 (aarch64) code generation capability for other real-time operating systems are under development with prioritization based on customer interest and requirements.

If you would like to receive additional information about the new PTC ApexAda v5.2 Embedded for Linux/Intel64 to Linux/Armv8 64-bit product or wish to be contacted by a PTC Developer Tools sales representative regarding evaluations, upgrades and associated pricing, register your request at https://www.ptc.com/en/products/developer-tools/objectada/contact-sales.

With Best Regards,
Shawn Fanning