Toolchain Doubt

[vsriharsha]

Hi All,
I was wondering if anyone can help me with my problem.

I am to join a company who are developing a new dedicated 16-bit processor. They are planning to assign me to the department which is responsible to maintain the GNU toolchain (actually it is being ported to their target by another sub-contracted company, but after they hand over, all maintainance work including bug-fixing, upgradation as required etc. is to be dealt by our department only, and I am expected to play a major role in it).

Till now, I never worked at such level, but worked a lot with C (so, only used gcc along with some minor options, as it was never my requirement to work at sub-levels). And Im trying to lay my hands on what is required. I request anyone who is experienced enough on this task to please guide me. I want to know the flow of work (like, First know all the options of gcc compiler, assembler, linker, debugger and bin utils. Second.... (i dont know)). I tried asking Mr. Google, but he started showing me too many sites, none of which has anything close to what I want (all of them either have their own toolchains or have advertised that they can do the job).

As for the pre-requisites, I have a good understanding of the Target Processor Architecture, its Instruction Set (wrote a few programs in assembly and ran them successfully on simulator that was developed) and I am good at C. I guess that is sufficient (for a start) for my task.

I would be greatful if someone can guide me on this.

Cheers,
Harsha.

[Overload]

I have no way to help, as I have never done any of these mentioned tasks, but I have a suggestion and a question. Suggestion: Read the documentation on GCC for all the compiler info. Question: New 16-bit processor? A bit of an oxymoron. First of all, a bit late... 32-bit processors are mainstream now. Also... 64-bit is becomming more popular now, and I think developing for 16-bit is a bit if not extremely outdated. So I am just curious. Why 16-bit?

[ober]

16 bit processors are developed for embedded systems that don't need the power of a 32 or 64 bit processor. It's not "outdated"... it's application specific.

And I apologize that I don't have more to add to the discussion, I'm just here to correct others

[vsriharsha]

Originally Posted by Overload

I have no way to help, as I have never done any of these mentioned tasks, but I have a suggestion and a question. Suggestion: Read the documentation on GCC for all the compiler info. Question: New 16-bit processor? A bit of an oxymoron. First of all, a bit late... 32-bit processors are mainstream now. Also... 64-bit is becomming more popular now, and I think developing for 16-bit is a bit if not extremely outdated. So I am just curious. Why 16-bit?

Well,
As far as the suggession... I've started on that (and that was also what I mentioned to be the first step).

Coming to your question, it is a specialized Dual-Thread DSP-type processor running at 250 MHz used for applications like VoIP etc.

Cheers,
Harsha.

[Waldo2k2]

the only experience I have with this kind of thing is using allen bradley rslogic software...so I can't really be of much help, sorry.