gregs@well.sf.ca.us (Greg Strockbine) (06/13/91)
We are just gearing up to do development using an IDT risc chip. Our target is a laser controller board. We just bought a DEC 5500 machine but we there seems to be some pieces missing, the list file does not supply addresses, there is no utility to convert to S record format. IDT thinks we should buy a mips workstation, they say all the tools are there, they also say almost no one is developing for a risc target system using a DEC risc machine. Did we buy the right machine? Also the DEC machine is little endian but everyone recommends our target system be big endian. Why? Can anyone shed some light on this for me? greg strockbine, dataproducts, woodland hills, ca.
k2@bl.physik.tu-muenchen.de (Klaus Steinberger) (06/13/91)
gregs@well.sf.ca.us (Greg Strockbine) writes: >Also the DEC machine is little endian but everyone recommends our target >system be big endian. Why? There is one pin on the MIPS chips, which switches from big to little endian. Nobody except DEC has switched its Box to little endian. For the MIPS workstation, i believe you need also the optional development software. (some utilities to build standalone targets, I don't now exactly the contents.) I don't know about availabiltiy for the DECstation. Klaus -- Klaus Steinberger Beschleunigerlabor der TU und LMU Muenchen Phone: (+49 89)3209 4287 Hochschulgelaende FAX: (+49 89)3209 4280 D-8046 Garching, Germany BITNET: K2@DGABLG5P Internet: k2@bl.physik.tu-muenchen.de
grr@cbmvax.commodore.com (George Robbins) (06/14/91)
In article <25406@well.sf.ca.us> gregs@well.sf.ca.us (Greg Strockbine) writes: > > We are just gearing up to do development using an IDT risc chip. Our > target is a laser controller board. We just bought a DEC 5500 machine > but we there seems to be some pieces missing, the list file does not > supply addresses, there is no utility to convert to S record format. > IDT thinks we should buy a mips workstation, they say all the tools are > there, they also say almost no one is developing for a risc target > system using a DEC risc machine. Did we buy the right machine? You may have added a bit of extra work to your project, since there is no explicit Ultrix support for generating standalone, while MIPS may provide a package intended to support MIPS chip level software and hardware development. On the other hand, it is usually not a very large task to take a linked object file and put out s-records or some similar format. > Also the DEC machine is little endian but everyone recommends our target > system be big endian. Why? Mostly a question of going along with the crowd. -- George Robbins - now working for, uucp: {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr but no way officially representing: domain: grr@cbmvax.commodore.com Commodore, Engineering Department phone: 215-431-9349 (only by moonlite)
mohta@necom830.cc.titech.ac.jp (Masataka Ohta) (06/14/91)
In article <22443@cbmvax.commodore.com> grr@cbmvax.commodore.com (George Robbins) writes: >> We are just gearing up to do development using an IDT risc chip. Our >> target is a laser controller board. We just bought a DEC 5500 machine >> but we there seems to be some pieces missing, the list file does not >> supply addresses, there is no utility to convert to S record format. >On the other hand, it is usually not a very large task to take a linked >object file and put out s-records or some similar format. I am now playing with a one board R3000 (actually LR3000 of LSI Logic). I wrote a short (<100 line) program on SONY RISC workstation (R3000) which converts a.out to S format. The board is now blinking LEDs with my program. Masataka Ohta
cprice@mips.com (Charlie Price) (06/15/91)
In article <25406@well.sf.ca.us> gregs@well.sf.ca.us (Greg Strockbine) writes: > >We just bought a DEC 5500 machine >but we there seems to be some pieces missing, the list file does not >supply addresses, there is no utility to convert to S record format. >IDT thinks we should buy a mips workstation, they say all the tools are >there, Of COURSE you want a MIPS workstation! :-) I don't know exactly what tools IDT has in mind. MIPS sells a package called the System Programmers Package (SPP) that is a basis for building a system-level simulator. I believe that at least some of our semiconductor partners, like IDT, resell versions of it with additional support for their own chipsets and development boards/hardware. SPP has an instruction-level CPU simulator for the R3000 and some sample I/O device simulators. You develop a simulator model of your hardware by adding/modifying code to simulate your hardware devices and environment. You can then execute compiled code on the finished system simulator and run it using the existing debugger, dbx. This is all fairly spiffy -- MIPS normally boots a version of UNIX for a new machine on a simulator long before the hardware is ready. >Also the DEC machine is little endian but everyone recommends our target >system be big endian. Why? You should pick an endian-ness that fits your environment. If the application doesn't dictate the selection, pick one that is convenient to write software for. DEC ships the only little-endian MIPS-based systems. IDT probably uses boxes from MIPS and therefore is used to thinking big endian and has big-endian tools. That is my guess why you are hearing big-endian. DEC ships the MIPS compilers with their OS. The MIPS compilers can generate code for either endian-ness. Unless DEC has made that option difficult to use, you can generate binaries whichever way you want. The other utilities you want to use probably don't work very well with non-native endian-ness binaries, though. -- Charlie Price cprice@mips.mips.com (408) 720-1700 MIPS Computer Systems / 928 Arques Ave. MS 1-03 / Sunnyvale, CA 94088-3650