RE: m68k assembler (and MRI tools)

["Don Starr" <don at starrsoft dot com>]

Sorry it took so long to reply, but one of my steps in crafting this
response took a little time...

>I am currently evaluating a replacement compiler for our CPU32 system.
>The Microtec compiler from Mentor is on my list.  What are your 
>Motivations for moving to gcc?  (you might save me some time :-)

$$$$$$$$$$

We just renewed our "support contract" from Mentor Graphics, which
allows us to get updates to the tools (0 - 2 per year) and gives
us access to tech support. 4 seats at $1000 per year each. That's
on top of what we initially paid for the tools (that was a few
grand per seat).

Our licenses are for (68K and CF versions of each):
 C/C++ compiler
 Assembler
 XRAY debugger
(Linker and Librarian aren't specifically called out in the licensing,
but they're included in the packages, of course.).

The Microtec tools are protected by a hardware dongle on the parallel
port (FLEXlm licensing). (Another option is a license server - it
has the dongle and will serve up a finite number of concurrent
licenses to client machines).

With the dongle-per-machine option, every machine on which you want
to run the tools has to have a file of the form:
FEATURE MCC68K     MRI 5.300 1-jan-00 0 C738F1FF "PC" FLEXID=8-5E70DEADBEEF
FEATURE ASM68K     MRI 7.600 1-jan-00 0 E939CA17 "PC" FLEXID=8-5E70DEADBEEF
FEATURE XP.OCD.68K MRI 4.600 1-jan-00 0 B1129C8E "PC" FLEXID=8-5E70DEADBEEF
FEATURE XP.CORE    MRI 4.600 1-jan-00 0 1D3868C0 "PC" FLEXID=8-5E70DEADBEEF

Note that the version numbers of each tool are embedded in there. When
you get an update to the tools, you have to contact Mentor Graphics,
send them your customer number and dongle IDs (the "FLEXID" field),
and wait for them to send you a new license file like the above.

I have no technical reasons for moving away from the Microtec tools.
My reasons are finance- and headache-related. "Headache" because, if I'm
working at home, using the dongle, I can't have somebody at the office
do a quick build for me.

Also, I have to use the GNU tools for another target. I thought it might
be nice to be consistent in the tool sets, if possible.

>Did you build it under cygwin by any chance? Because I'm having great
>Difficults getting to this stage (see recent posts to this list).  Any
>tips would be much appreciated.

Yes, Cygwin on Win2k. I see from your 30 August post that you're
building for a 68331 - same here. Mine is position-independent code,
A5-relative data.

I built from:
 gcc-2.95.3
 newlib-1.10.0
 binutils-2.11.2

I also applied an m68k patch file that I found at:
 http://www.uclinux.org/pub/uClinux/m68k-elf-tools/tools-20011219/
The file is:
 gcc-2.95.3-full.patch
(I don't remember how I found that patch. I has to do with the
position-independent code and A5-relative data necessary for my
target.)

I followed Bill Gatliff's [non-scripted] steps.

To test my sanity (at least this small part of it), I tried to rebuild
the whole toolchain. D&%M!! Now it chokes in configuring newlib!!!
This worked before (for me, it worked on 30 April 2002). Apparently,
I didn't document my steps as well as I thought I had. Well, I've
been looking for an excuse to try gcc 3.2 - I guess this will do.

I saw in one of your posts that you had the same newlib configuration
problem I now see, but were able to overcome it. Was it with gcc 3.2?
How did you get past it (I never saw how, just that you did)?

-Don


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