Re: Configure options for mips cross compiler ?

[Kai Ruottu <kai dot ruottu at luukku dot com>]

Kai Ruottu wrote:
> 
> "Manikandan.V" wrote:
> > I want to build a cross compiler for mips processor in NT machine what are
> > the options I have to give while configuring and building.
> 
> If the WindowsNT/MIPS is your target system, please forget the project... The WinNT/PPC
> was once a supported system in Cygwin and some WinNT/Alpha ports also existed, but I
> haven't ever heard about a Cygwin/Mingw port for WinNT/MIPS...

 Thinking this further, the idea may perhaps look quite sane... Now there is the
'mips-wince-pe' port in the GNU binutils, just as there is the same target name
for GCC (after some WinCE-patches have been added).  So using this as the base,
a GNU toolset for WindowsNT/MIPS can be possible using the Mingw-idea... The PE-
format used in WinCE 2.x cannot be that far away from the NT/MIPS-format...

 But I wouldn't recommend this for a novice...

 If old NEC MIPS-PCs or other ARC-machines with WindowsNT are gathering dust in
some corner, a better project could be the MIPS/Linux for ARC project...

 Ok, the MIPS/Linux FAQ isn't very optimistic:

------------------------------- clip ------------------------------------------
What is this ARC standard?

The ARC standard is a standard that has been created by the ACE consortium some
years ago. It defines certain hardware properties and and set of BIOS routines.
The kernel is in no way based on the ARC standard; only the bootloader Milo
depends from the ARC standard. Unfortunately the ARC stanrdard has lots of
disadvantages: 

  Many of the hardware standards it defines are outdated compared with today's
  average PCs. There are only EISA slots in the standard but not PCI. 

  ARC doesn't define anything regarding bootprom security (like Sun's bootproms,
  eg.).

  All implementations that I've used yet are incomplete and buggy.

  The ARC standard documents are (C) by Microsoft and therefore cannot easily be
  used in Free Software. Conseuence for Linux/MIPS is that the current implementation
  of Milo can only be partially distributed as source code. The ARC related code
  (which is luckily only a small part) is currently only being published as object
  code library.

  There is no longer an organisation that continues development of the ARC standard.

  It is very difficult to get access to the ARC standard documents because only very
  few people have them at all.

  Similar standards like OpenBoot from Sun are far better design. OpenBoot is even an
  official IEEE standard.

  The ARC standard is proprietary. 

In short it is not necessarily a disadvantage if your machine isn't ARC compliant -
as soon someone has written a bootloader this might even be an advantage. An
example for a Linux/MIPS systems that isn't ARC conformant is the DECstation series. 
------------------------------- clip ------------------------------------------

Cheers, Kai



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