*BSD News Article 89555


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From: f e l l o w s d @ c s . m a n . a c . u k
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.networking,comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.unix.bsd.misc,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy,comp.os.os2.advocacy
Subject: Re: GPL
Date: 18 Feb 1997 15:38:12 GMT
Organization: Dept of Computer Science, University of Manchester, U.K.
Lines: 28
Message-ID: <5ecid4$nde@m1.cs.man.ac.uk>
References: <32DFFEAB.7704@usa.net> <5df12n$ckb@kadri.ut.ee> <5dn154$lgg@m1.cs.man.ac.uk> <5e1mr6$868@milkwort.bri.st.com>
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In article <5e1mr6$868@milkwort.bri.st.com>,
David Shepherd  <des@bristol.st.com> wrote:
> Donal K. Fellows <fellowsd@cs.man.ac.uk> wrote:
>> I still want to know why any company would be bothering to make
>> significant modifications to GCC anyway, seeing as they could leave it
>> alone and concentrate on the rest of the project, so getting it to
>> market sooner...
> 
> A chip can get "to market" as early as it likes but nowadays it will
> get no further unless its got a decent software toolset to support it.

Sure, but a compiler is only one part of the toolset, and the way GCC
is built means that it isn't usually necessary to modify it to take
account of a new processor (unless it is _very_ wierd).  This I know
from experience (in particular, I've seen the ARM toolkit, and the
compiler is only a small part of that)  Bundling GCC with a processor
simulator does not force the simulator to be released under the GPL!

Porting GCC to a new target architecture is probably only a few
man-months of work, whereas the design of the architecture and teh
rest of the toolkit is a _lot_ more...

Donal.
--
Donal K. Fellows   http://r8h.cs.man.ac.uk:8000/  (SAY NO TO COMMERCIAL SPAMS!)
(work) fellowsd@cs.man.ac.uk     Dept. Comp. Sci, Univ. Manchester, U.K.
 |     donal@ugglan.demon.co.uk  6,Randall Place, Heaton, Bradford, U.K. (home)
 +-> ++44-161-275-6137  Send correspondence to my office  ++44-1274-401017 <-+