AMaCC = Another Mini ARM C Compiler
Introduction
AMaCC is built from scratch, targeted at 32-bit ARM architecture. There are 3 execution modes AMaCC implements:
- Just-in-Time compiler (JITC) for ARM backend
- Generate valid Executable and Linkable Format (ELF) executables
- Interpreter-only execution
Indeed, AMaCC is designed to compile the minimal subset of C required to self-host. For example, global variables and, in particular, global arrays are there.
Compatibility
AMaCC is capable of compiling C source files written in the following syntax:
- data types: char, int, struct, and pointer
- condition statements: if, while, for, switch, case, break, return, and general expressions
- compound assignments:
+=,-=,*=
The architecture support targets armv7hf with Linux ABI.
Prerequisites
-
Code generator in AMaCC relies on several GNU/Linux behaviors, and it is necessary to have ARM/Linux installed in your build environment.
-
Install Linaro ARM Toolchain
- Check "Latest Linux Targeted Binary Toolchain Releases"
- Select
arm-linux-gnueabihf(32-bit Armv7-a, hard-float, little-endian)
-
Install QEMU for ARM user emulation
sudo apt-get install qemu-userRunning AMaCC
Run make check and you should see this:
[ C to IR translation ] Passed
[ JIT compilation + execution ] Passed
[ ELF generation ] Passed
[ nested/self compilation ] Passed
[ Compatibility with GCC/Arm ] ......................................
Internals
Check Intermediate Representation (IR) for AMaCC Compilation.
Acknowledgements
AMaCC is based on the infrastructure of c4.