News

Compuware, AMD sign pact

• By Michael W. Bucken
• November 25, 2002

Compuware Corp. (http:www.compuware.com), Farmington Hills, Mich.,
has signed an agreement with chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices
(http://www.amd.com), Sunnyvale, Calif., to build a version of its
SoftIce 64 debugger for systems running the AMD x86-64 processor.
Observers said the agreement can enable developers to more rapidly
build software targeted for AMD's next generation Opteron and AMD
Athlon processors.

The SoftIce toolset is part of Compuware's DriverStudio product
line and is said to accelerate the development and debugging of
Windows device drivers. The agreement calls for Compuware to
accelerate the development of a version of  SoftICE64 technology
for the AMD 64-bit chip platform. AMD officials are looking to
quickly add support from software developers to accelerate the
adoption of the company's new 64-bit technology, said Ed
Gasiorowski, director of developer relations in AMD's Computation
Products unit.

The new processors are based on AMD's so-called Hammer technology,
which supports both 32-bit and 64-bit technologies. AMD officials
said the Hammer technology can aid firms in evolving from 32-bit
to 64-bit systems.

The agreement also calls for AMD driver developers to use Compuware's
DriverStudio toolset. Don Morrison, vice president of channels and
alliances at Compuware, said the agreement can also help users of
his firm's products to migrate more easily from 32-bit to 64-bit
systems.