gnupic: What About GCC and PIC's
Subject:
What About GCC and PIC's
From:
Martin McCormick ####@####.####
Date:
18 Apr 2005 20:15:52 +0100
Message-Id: <200504181915.j3IJFkY5089280@dc.cis.okstate.edu>
I know that GCC can be compiled as a cross-compiler if one
needs to do such things. Has anyone tried to adapt gcc and gdb to
handle PIC's?
I will be straight up front in that I do not know what happens
at all when a cross-compiler is adapted to generate code for a new
CPU. I do know that all the memory mapping and operational algorithms
must fit. PIC's are tiny compared to the memory model for a Pentium
or a PowerPC, but I am sure it could be done. Whether it is practical
may be totally another question.
Just mainly curious right now. The Linux PIC tools we have
are great, but it seems to me like gcc would be a good possibility for
those times when we have a project that starts to stretch the
comprehension limit of assembly such as temperature conversions and calendar
routines, etc. I can imagine that any PIC C compiler must be extremely
efficient since it wouldn't take much Pentium-sized code to suck up
all the available EPROM memory in most PIC's.
I can just hear it. "I've got this great alarm clock built,
but I ran out of code space and can't set it."
In reality, I have never tried any C on an embedded system,
but I have thought of a few projects that would probably be easier on
the cerebral cortex in C than they would be in assembly.:-)
Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK
OSU Information Technology Division Network Operations Group
