GCC documentation

This is a collection of information about ARC GCC compiler. It provides various information for how to use efficiently GCC compiler for ARC processors.

ARC specific tech discussion

• Custom instructions: what and how
  • Examples
    • Example 1
    • Example 2
    • Example 3
• GCC’s support for ARC custom extensions
  • Using inline functions
  • Using a global asm helper file containing the definition of the custom instructions
  • Using only defines at the C source level
  • References
• Impact of 64-bit integral operation on GCC toolchain
  • Intro
  • 64-bit move operations
  • Multiplication Instructions
    • Multiply and Accumulate instructions
    • Caveats
    • Case study
    • Implementation matrix used by GCC
• Using JLI Instructions with GNU
  • Optimizing Code using JLI Calls on Functions
  • Discussion about MWDT/GNU Compatibility
• SecureShield Programming
  • SecureShield API
  • Identifying the Secure-Callable APIs
  • Programming Cautions
  • Example
• Sanitizers support for ARC
  • Address Sanitizer Examples
    • Heap-use-after-free
    • Heap-buffer-overflow
    • Stack-buffer-overflow
    • Global-buffer-overflow
  • References
• Working with small data section
  • Small data available access range
    • Sdata and address scaling mode discussion
  • Controlling what goes into SDATA segment
    • Automatic for global data
    • Using named sections

From MWDT to GCC

• MWDT vs. GCC option matrix
• Migrating ARChitect APEX generated header to GNU
  • The Auxiliary registers
  • The extension core registers
  • User extension instructions
    • GNU header
• Intrinsics in ARC GNU vs MWDT

Improving GCC output

• Understanding compiler options
  • Architecture-Independent Optimizations
  • Processor-Specific Optimizations
  • GCC optimizations for Code Size
  • GCC optimization for speed
  • Using _optimize_ attribute
  • Default GCC driver options and parameters; ARC specific
    • Optimizations
    • Parameters
    • ARC hardware variation