Background

3L's expertise is multiprocessing, where many processing elements work closely together on the same problem to produce results faster than a single one could achieve on its own. 3L offers tools that substantially reduce the time and effort required to develop multiprocessor applications.

We don't compete with mainstream vendors of tools for general-purpose computers. Instead, 3L targets special-purpose hardware that is optimised for multiprocessor Digital Signal Processing (DSP) and FPGA applications in such fields as telecommunications, radar, sonar, imaging and many others.

Standard software development tools from the major DSP and FPGA manufacturers are powerful and well-developed, but they usually address systems with only one processor. There have been many attempts to stretch single-processor tools like these to support multiprocessor systems, but the results have never been satisfactory.

3L products have been designed from the start to support multiprocessor applications. They build upon the best parts of the manufacturer's tools (the compilers, for example) and fit them into a coherent model of multiprocessing. The result is a powerful yet simple software technology proven in applications worldwide.

Company History

Founded in 1987, 3L is an independent, privately-owned company that has been in the business of developing and marketing high-quality multiprocessor development tools for more than twenty years.

From 1982 to 1986, the founders had built a successful track record based on compiler development contracts with Acorn Computers (ARM), Concurrent Computer Corporation (Perkin-Elmer/Interdata) and Inmos (the transputer).

3L was established as an independent business in 1987 to exploit new opportunities in multiprocessor computing opened up by the transputer with its Parallel C, Parallel FORTRAN, and Parallel Pascal products. 3L quickly became the dominant supplier of development tools for that processor family.

In 1990, 3L was approached by Texas Instruments to port the transputer software to its then new C4x parallel DSP chip. The resulting product was launched in March 1992 at CeBIT in Hanover, Germany.

By September 1992, C4x products were generating more than 20% of turnover and 3L had completely refocused on opportunities in the DSP market. In 1998 the product was renamed Diamond and the main focus of 3L switched to Texas Instruments' then newest & fastest DSP range, the C6000 series.

As Multicore has become the next de-facto standard for multiprocessing, 3L has been approached to support the new TI C6472 six-core DSP. 3L Diamond's model is ideal for Multicore applications, thanks to its flexibility and ease of extension.

Supported hardware & processors (historically)

• Transputers
• TI C4x, C6xxx
• ADI Sharc, TigerSharc
• DEC Alpha