MicroAPL Announces 68K Assembler Porting Tool for Macintosh with PowerPC
London, England, January 5, 1994 - MicroAPL Ltd of London, England, today announced the general availability of PortAsm, a source-code translation tool which converts 680x0 assembly language applications to run native on Apple Computer Inc.'s next-generation Macintosh with PowerPC computers, scheduled for introduction in the first half of 1994.
PortAsm takes assembly-language source code, and translates it to PowerPC RISC assembler source which is then assembled and linked using Apple's standard tools to produce a fully native application. By analysing the context of the 680x0 instructions, efficient PowerPC equivalents are emitted, and the translator automatically adjusts parameter passing to adapt to Apple's new runtime architecture for Macintosh with PowerPC systems. Assembly language code which calls or is called by C is fully supported. Symbolic debugging, using the original 680x0 source file, is available in conjunction with Apple's PowerPC debugger.
Already in use by major Macintosh developers, PortAsm will now be made widely available running under the Macintosh Programmer's Workshop. "Using PortAsm has allowed us to maintain our existing source base, which includes several hundred thousand lines of 68K assembly, and still produce a native Macintosh with PowerPC application," said Tom Sanders, Director of Macintosh Development at WordPerfect Corporation. "The people at MicroAPL have been wonderful to work with. They have been incredibly responsive to our requests, going the extra mile to provide us timely solutions to problems we've had translating our source. We especially appreciate that using PortAsm allows us to use the debugger while referencing our 68K source, and to mix C and assembler."
Richard Nabavi, Chairman of MicroAPL Ltd, commented "For two years, we have been working closely with Apple and its leading applications developers to produce a translation tool which will make it straightforward to port the large base of 680x0 assembly language code to the exciting new range of RISC-based Macintosh computers. We believe the results are excellent, both in terms of the ease of the translation process, and the quality of the final native applications."
PortAsm prices start at $750 for developers who have small amounts of code to translate. MicroAPL also provides consulting, training and porting services to assist in the transition to Macintosh with PowerPC, although PortAsm is easy to use and special skills are not generally necessary.
MicroAPL Ltd was founded in 1979, and is based in London, England. It is best known for its range of APL interpreters on the Macintosh and other systems, but its principal activities encompass systems and applications consultancy, and GUI application development.
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PortAsm and MicroAPL are trademarks of MicroAPL Ltd. Apple and Macintosh are registered trademarks of Apple Computer Inc. PowerPC is a trademark, and AIX and IBM are registered trademarks, of International Business Machines Corporation. WordPerfect is a registered trademark of WordPerfect Corporation.