Compiling vax kernel with pcc

[Anders Magnusson]

Hi,

I have resurrected the vax target from the dead and just compiled a
NetBSD/vax kernel with pcc.
Haven't tried to boot it yet though, will do that when I have setup a
vax to boot on .-)

I assume that OpenBSD will compile as well, but I need to setup a vax
for that to test also.

No fancy addressing modes are implemented yet, so the kernel became
unneccessary large,
about 20% bigger than a gcc compiled kernel. This will be added later.

Anyway, hopefully this means that vax soon can be added to the list of
"officially supported"
pcc targets :-)

-- Ragge

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[Anders Magnusson]

On 07/28/2011 02:49 PM, Brad Parker wrote:
>> No fancy addressing modes are implemented yet, so the kernel became
>> unneccessary large,
>> about 20% bigger than a gcc compiled kernel. This will be added later.

> If this is something mere mortals can reproduce? If so, I'd enjoy
> trying it out.
Yep, no problem. Just fetch the current source, see
http://pcc.ludd.ltu.se/downloads/ for details.

If you are running on a vax just compile the kernel with CC=pcc, if
you're cross-compiling
then you need to fix the cross-build environment in some way.
>
> I regularly boot netbsd/vax for 11/7xx using the simh simulator. It's
> easy to set up. Once it
> works I copy my image to a scsi disk and boot on a real live 11/730.
>
> My assumption (perhaps incorrect) is that once pcc is up to speed it
> might well generate better
> code for the vax than gcc does, with less cpu and memory.
Well, I wouldn't be sure of that, but there are a bunch of optimizations
that still can be
added to pcc for vax.

[Brad Parker]

Anders Magnusson wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have resurrected the vax target from the dead and just compiled a
> NetBSD/vax kernel with pcc.
> Haven't tried to boot it yet though, will do that when I have setup a
> vax to boot on .-)

yea!

> No fancy addressing modes are implemented yet, so the kernel became
> unneccessary large,
> about 20% bigger than a gcc compiled kernel. This will be added later.

If this is something mere mortals can reproduce? If so, I'd enjoy
trying it out.

I regularly boot netbsd/vax for 11/7xx using the simh simulator. It's

easy to set up. Once it
works I copy my image to a scsi disk and boot on a real live 11/730.

My assumption (perhaps incorrect) is that once pcc is up to speed it
might well generate better
code for the vax than gcc does, with less cpu and memory.

-brad