On 12/27/07, Oleg Verych <[email protected]> wrote:
> * as it seems to me, there are almost no pure-non-Windows(R) people here
> * 8k is quite better, than IAR's 4k
> * without fsck-ups form compiler vendors
>  ** TI can control quality for both uCs and Ccs/asms
>  ** same for mortals uC users -- emb. developers
>
> - bad thing is, that generally it's not fair, if codebase was started
>  from the original msp430 GCC port and nothing goes back.

I do not think the CCE C compiler is GCC based judging from
the compiler user guide.
http://focus.ti.com/lit/ug/slau132a/slau132a.pdf
Normally big MCU companies do obey GPL.

If it is GCC based, TI will have to publish the source code
of the compiler.

Other than Atmel (AVR32), very few MCU companies directly
support Linux and/or full GNU toolchains. Some MCU vendors
based their compiler on GCC but that does not mean
the compiler will be fully free since they can add proprietory
optimizer or use a different C library.

Example: Microchip C30 is based on GCC and you can
build the compiler for free under Linux. The libraries are not
free. And they add a optimizer which does not fall under GPL.

Microchip C32 is again based on GCC but again the
libraries are not free. So even if you can build the
C compiler binary under Linux, you still do have a
free toolchain.

So Atmel does set a good example (full toolchain, including
support for the hardware JTAG debugger) for AVR32.
But they do not do this for their AVR 8-bit MCU.

Let's face it, most of the electronics engineer still use
Windows at work and Windows XP SP2 is actually
quite good in most cases. I'd like to see companies
support more and more Linux but we have to wait.
Or better, we can support project like
mspgcc/avrgcc/gnuarm/etc buy using them.

Xiaofan
http://mcuee.blogspot.com

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