Fasm for MIPS?

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Artlav

Joined: 23 Dec 2004
Posts: 188
Location: Moscow, Russia

Artlav 08 Jun 2011, 10:17

Is there an existing or planned implementation of Fasm cross-compiling for MIPS architecture?

If not, what kind of MIPS-based things are out there that could be interesting to have a nice assembler for?

There is a Loongson CPU, which is MIPS64, and a nice GPL laptop built around it.
There is also a Nanonote pocket computer with JZ4720 CPU (MIPSII, Xburst).
Anything else worth noting?

The binary formats i've seen are elf and elf64, is there any others used?
What about some kind of WindowsCE-related one?

08 Jun 2011, 10:17

revolution
When all else fails, read the source

Joined: 24 Aug 2004
Posts: 20344
Location: In your JS exploiting you and your system

revolution 08 Jun 2011, 10:22

Artlav wrote:

Is there an existing or planned implementation of Fasm cross-compiling for MIPS architecture?

There is no way of knowing what others have planned but I would imagine the answer is currently no.

Artlav wrote:

If not, what kind of MIPS-based things are out there that could be interesting to have a nice assembler for?

There is a Loongson CPU, which is MIPS64, and a nice GPL laptop built around it.
There is also a Nanonote pocket computer with JZ4720 CPU (MIPSII, Xburst).
Anything else worth noting?

My impression is that MIPS is going to die. There does not appear to be any significant market left for it.

08 Jun 2011, 10:22

Artlav

Joined: 23 Dec 2004
Posts: 188
Location: Moscow, Russia

Artlav 08 Jun 2011, 10:29

revolution wrote:

My impression is that MIPS is going to die. There does not appear to be any significant market left for it.

Maybe, but there goes China, with a program to replace the Intel stuff with something of their own making in the internal "market".
So, all kinds of government-owned organisations get to use Loongson-based computers.

What are your reasoning for the death of MIPS?

08 Jun 2011, 10:29

revolution
When all else fails, read the source

Joined: 24 Aug 2004
Posts: 20344
Location: In your JS exploiting you and your system

revolution 08 Jun 2011, 10:38

Artlav wrote:

What are your reasoning for the death of MIPS?

They have no significant market. Without enough buyers it will die.

But if you say that the Chinese gov. is keen to buy non-mainstream stuff then perhaps it can continue as a minor product with only one customer. But if that is that case then average Joe won't get to have a machine in his study to use.

08 Jun 2011, 10:38

TmX

Joined: 02 Mar 2006
Posts: 841
Location: Jakarta, Indonesia

TmX 08 Jun 2011, 10:47

revolution wrote:

My impression is that MIPS is going to die. There does not appear to be any significant market left for it.

Aren't both MIPS and ARM are based on RISC design? What are the main differences, anyway?

08 Jun 2011, 10:47

revolution
When all else fails, read the source

Joined: 24 Aug 2004
Posts: 20344
Location: In your JS exploiting you and your system

revolution 08 Jun 2011, 10:55

TmX wrote:

Aren't both MIPS and ARM are based on RISC design?

True. But RISC is only the basic underlying structure. There is a lot more to it than just RISC vs CISC vs EPIC vs VLIW vs etc.

TmX wrote:

What are the main differences, anyway?

The market they are used in. If it was just about design and instruction sets then x86 would never have even gone past the 8085 stage.

08 Jun 2011, 10:55

Artlav

Joined: 23 Dec 2004
Posts: 188
Location: Moscow, Russia

Artlav 25 Jun 2011, 16:37

revolution wrote:

The market they are used in. If it was just about design and instruction sets then x86 would never have even gone past the 8085 stage.

Hm, what's wrong with the market? MIPS is a reference architecture.
Playstation 2, the best-selling console, have a MIPS CPU core. PSP do as well, several PDAs run on it. There is a Chinese push with a home-grown MIPS based CPU.
Plenty of market.

What is your perspective on it?

25 Jun 2011, 16:37

revolution
When all else fails, read the source

Joined: 24 Aug 2004
Posts: 20344
Location: In your JS exploiting you and your system

revolution 28 Jun 2011, 04:11

Artlav wrote:

Hm, what's wrong with the market? MIPS is a reference architecture.
Playstation 2, the best-selling console, have a MIPS CPU core. PSP do as well, several PDAs run on it. There is a Chinese push with a home-grown MIPS based CPU.
Plenty of market.

What is your perspective on it?

I never said there was anything wrong with the market, simply that the current market is not conducive to long term continuance of the CPU. That doesn't in any way say the CPU is flawed or bad, just that it is unlikely to survive unless there is a huge shift to push it into more places. My opinion only of course. And I would be happy to be wrong about it since MIPS is quite good technology.

28 Jun 2011, 04:11

f2

Joined: 30 May 2010
Posts: 13
Location: France

f2 26 Jul 2011, 22:17

Artlav wrote:

Is there an existing or planned implementation of Fasm cross-compiling for MIPS architecture?

Yes, there is. Someone made a MIPS version of FASM 6 years ago. See here: http://board.flatassembler.net/topic.php?t=3039.

Unfortunately, it is based on an old version of FASM (v1.56) and is no longer maintained.

f2

26 Jul 2011, 22:17

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