June 5, 2012 -- IAR Systems AB has announced a new version of its development tool suite for Renesas RX microcontrollers. IAR Embedded Workbench for RX version 2.40 brings highly improved optimizations and also introduces a new text editor and source browser.

The IAR C/C++ Compiler for RX has been tuned to produce better optimized code and the generated code is both smaller in size, and substantially faster in execution. Initial tests show more than 30% reduced execution times for industry-standard test code, compared to the previous version. Added to the compiler is also support for the C++ feature Multiple inheritance.

The new version of IAR for RX also introduces a new text editor and source browser that adds a large amount of user-friendly functionality. New features include auto-completion, code folding, block selection, block indenting, bracket matching, and zooming. Character encoding support and word/ paragraph navigation have also been improved compared to the previous version.

Another new feature in version 2.40 is a C-SPY start/ stop function available for the E1/E20 emulators. The start/ stop function makes it possible to execute specified routines of the user application immediately before starting and immediately after halting program execution. Also added is the possibility to define custom SFRs (special function registers) in C-SPY with selectable access size and type.

The version also adds new license features such as commuter licenses, automatic license activation and support for virtual servers, facilitating license management for global customers.

Availability

Evaluation versions of IAR Embedded Workbench for RX version 2.40 are available at the IAR website.