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Inexpensive ARM compilers

Paul,

you got it to the point (the libs) where the weakest point of GNU is. The standard library generates slightly humongus code.

AFAIK, the Keil version you used is actually a GNU C-Compiler with the Standard LIB, embedded in the Keil uVision. There is a new compiler, non-GNU which generates much better code and has its own libraries.

As a compiler, not looking at the libraries, numbers that I have seen compiling some benchmarks ourselves were in the range 20-30 larger than best in class (was ARM about 18 months ago). Nevertheless, using the GNU Libs, it was more than a factor of 2.

Summary: the secret is mostly in the libraries

Robertus

Paul Curtis wrote:

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Robertus
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Hmm, Ulf references -30% on the kernel, and I think the kernel doesn't utilize the "C standard library" much compared to a user app, so the gain might be in "core" code optimization.

In fairness to this thread, I should have stated that "my informal comparisons" used compilers for other (i.e., non-ARM) RISC architectures (e.g., PowerPC, i960, and 29000) and are now dated. For example MetaWare's PPC compiler *was* pretty good compared to GCC's code generation. Is it still? I don't know.

If GCC has reeled in some of the gap, I'm happy because the last two and the current projects are at the Linux bootloader/kernel/driver level with me still using GCC.

-- Dan Henry

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Dan Henry

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