Hi Gerald and friends (what follows is a copy of a message sent earlier today to Gerald)
> At http://www.gnu.org/software/gcc/extensions.html we have a reference > to the DLX port of GCC, which corresponds to the DLX machine described > in "Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach" by Hennessy and > Patterson. First of all, i will be happy to help, and if applicable to submit my own DLX backend. Over the previous years, I had downloaded and used both a really archaic gcc-1.09 DLX backend as well as the one you refer too. They are both in a sad state of affairs, but the gcc-2.7.2.1 (AFAICR) was usable. Since i wanted to use a DLX cross-compiler for embedded system development (and to produce objects for the ArchC -- http://www.archc.org -- simulator infrastructure), I coded my own DLX backend for GCC. I developed it around September-October 2006, first for the 3.3.1 release and then updated its state for the 3.4.4. This backend is usable (i used it quite a lot) and has the following features and non-features :) - no proper handling of 64-bit moves - no support for soft-float - a couple of additions to the "standard" DLX ISA, a select (conditional move) instructions for partial predication, inspired by the Machine-SUIF select IR instruction. This one really works well (was adapted from MIPS32 movn, movz). If there is interest, i can submit the backend (where exactly in the cvs tree?) and with the help of the community can fix the 64-bit moves issue, plus add soft-floating. > On the binutils side I see that Nikolaos has been listed as a maintainer, > so there may be hope? :-) Otherwise I'm afraid we'll have to remove our > reference to the DLX port. Actually, I had stepped up as a binutils DLX maintainer for more-less the same reasons. I work on my own soft processors for FPGA-based embedded systems and DLX is a reference for comparisons. I'm having a small sabbatical from late Feb. to May 10 during which i will mostly polish my software projects. I can submit the backend in next days (prior 5-6 January) and fix most issues prior May 10 (joining the army for 9-month military service :) Kind regards Nikolaos Kavvadias PS: My own version of the binutils DLX port supports the "select" instruction. I should submit this as well.
