[Arm-netbook] [review] SoC proposal

[lkcl luke]

On Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 6:07 PM, Vladimir Pantelic <vladoman at gmail.com> wrote:
> Tony Garnock-Jones wrote:
>> On 02/09/2012 11:56 AM, Gordan Bobic wrote:
>>>  The downside is that you need a damn good compiler to leverage it - and
>>>  GCC isn't it.
>>
>> This is where Nile/Gezira come in: you actually need more than a damn
>> good compiler, you need a better language - and C isn't it.
>
> So, to sum it up, we have many nonstandard tensilica VLIW cores that we
> will not program with gcc but with some other compiler and not using C
> but some other language, but we will port existing Linux kernel and
> userland to it quickly, right? :) :) :) let's go! :)

 :)

 no, completely and utterly wrong!

 1) the linux kernel, toolchain etc. (and buildroot and a couple of
other embedded environments) have already been done.

 2) tensilica have a [proprietary] language "translator" (look it up
on wikipedia) which translates c and c++ into VLIW-aware c and
VLIW-aware c++ which the *STANDARD* gcc toolchain (that tensilica have
*ALREADY* completed) understands perfectly.

 3) if the option of adding the VLIW extensions is too complex for
good-old free software land to comprehend, then we just leave them
out, and find another way to get the required performance.

 that's not all - please do not go misunderstanding what i've written
there [like "oh it's a proprietary VLIW compiler therefore it will
stay that way therefore this project will fail"] - i haven't even got
into negotiations yet with their applications engineer (he's back next
week) in order to raise the possibility of them releasing the VLIW
language-translator as a Free Software Project.

 l.