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Subject: 
Re: GCC vs. IAR compiler: Could GCC be tweaked to generate code as tight as IAR?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.nxt.nxthacking
Date: 
Wed, 14 Mar 2007 19:53:10 GMT
Viewed: 
17200 times
  
Regarrding overwriting the flash system. I encountered the problem of
flash file system overwriting user code as well. It's because it is
hard coded in the code the starting address of the file system.
There's a constant named "STARTOFUSERFLASH" that defines where the
file system ("USERFLASH") begins.

I resolved this to make it a run-time definition and make things much
easier. What I did was add a new segment to the linker file with
command that it is to be located as the last linked section. I'm sure
the IAR linker commands are different for GCC so I won't go into that.
Then I modified the source to change the defines for the "first /
start address for flash file storage" from being a constant to being a
reference to a constant relating to the last address in my dummy
section. Once I got this working, no more problems.

Within the IAR tool chain, enabling/disabling compiler optimization
can make alarge different of 10s of 1K of code size. Make sure that
you've got all the GCC optimizations enabled.

You're right. The IAR tool chain recompiles firmware version 1.04 into
something around 128K.




"nxtmote" <nxtmote@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:JEwGI7.60C@lugnet.com...
Hi,

If I compile the LEGO firmware sources with gcc, the code size
increases much
beyond the 128 KB (which I think) the IAR compiled sources fits
into. That means
that one have to relocate part of the compiled code into the memory
areas
between 128KB-256KB. That is ok, but not totally optimal as the
files,
filehandles, and file verion info is also in that region making it a
puzzle.
Also I think it is hard to download new files if the flash is partly
taken for
code purposes.

With the http://nxtgcc.sf.net project (which you need to look into
this) I get
these numbers from the make process:

Size after:
m_sched.elf  :
section             size      addr
.text             126176   1048576
.text2             23572   1279744
.data               6180   2097152
.bss               45828   2103332
.comment            2133         0
.debug_aranges       496         0
.debug_pubnames       31         0
.debug_info         2139         0
.debug_abbrev        512         0
.debug_line         2732         0
.debug_frame         216         0
.debug_str           276         0
.debug_loc           353         0
.debug_ranges         48         0
Total             210692

text2 and data is relocated. (See AT91SAM7S256_memory.ldh linker
details in the
"common") folder for details. I have tried with a "home-made"
toolchain (see
"toolchain" folder and now with the precompiled WinArm toolchain,
which produces
tighter code. The GNUARM toolchain did worse than WinARM.

Best,
Rasmus



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: GCC vs. IAR compiler: Could GCC be tweaked to generate code as tight as IAR?
 
(...) Hi Dick Swan, That is a nice flexible way of doing it. I will see if I can figure it out in gcc. Thanks for the idea. (...) Well...I have -=Os on, which are all size reducing features. The actual "problem" can also be this packed stuff that we (...) (18 years ago, 15-Mar-07, to lugnet.robotics.nxt.nxthacking)

Message is in Reply To:
  GCC vs. IAR compiler: Could GCC be tweaked to generate code as tight as IAR?
 
Hi, If I compile the LEGO firmware sources with gcc, the code size increases much beyond the 128 KB (which I think) the IAR compiled sources fits into. That means that one have to relocate part of the compiled code into the memory areas between (...) (18 years ago, 14-Mar-07, to lugnet.robotics.nxt.nxthacking)

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