[comp.os.minix] c68/c386 status and progress

HBO043%DJUKFA11.BITNET@cunyvm.cuny.edu (Christoph van Wuellen) (12/18/90)

first of all, the c386 framework is ready. It is able to compile itself
and I have tested it on my benchmark application, C-TeX: it works.

To run TeX, I had to build in floating point: i built in 80387 support,
this is tested now, and library calls, this is un-tested.
You can #define NOFLOAT then the compiler runs without using floating point,
but it cannot generate floating point constants then.

Changes in the front end:
I had to tell the front end to distinguisch float from double. This was easy.
I also abandoned an own bt_enum type, making enums 'int'. This was necessary
to be compatible with Sun compilers.

Performance:
GCC: 9000 Dhrystoned, Sun-C: 8000 Dhrystones, C386: 7000 dhrystones.
Note that there is no target-specific optimizations built in now.

Running C-TeX on a 36-page document (user CPU time):
GCC 13.8 sec, Sun-C 15.8 sec, C386 19.7 sec

So not fast, but improvements are up to you. I just wanted to show that
c68 can easily be extended to other processors. I am thinking of a T800
a little bit, but I am limited in time at the moment.

I am not here  for a few days, I will submit the patches and the new modules
when I am back.

This will be patchlevel 6, and c68 II.6 will be available in complete form
in Glen Overbys archive then.

C.v.W.