Status of the binutils MMIX port

See also the installation instructions for running the GCC test-suite and status of other tools and parts.

The binutils port for MMIX works, and is included in the official GNU binutils project sources, to be included in the next major release, most probably numbered 2.12. Note that the version information on the GNU binutils project page is obsolete, but the CVS information and snapshot access information is up-to-date as of this writing.

The syntax of mmixal, is mostly supported. "Standard" pseudo-ops are used for everything not covered there, such as debug and section information.

The ELF object format is used for intermediate files (before the final link). When linked, the result is by default in the mmo object format understood by the mmix simulator. The official e_machine ELF identifier number for MMIX (EM_MMIX) is 80 (decimal). Naturally, the object files are the 64-bit ELF variant.

All ELF/DWARF debugging information is wrapped into mmo BSPEC 80 / ESPEC regions, so debugging information is retained for use by a future GDB port, or used if mmo files are translated back to ELF for some reason.

For further information, see the documentation included with binutils; primarily the GAS documentation. Binutils is included in the compound tar-ball mentioned in the installation instructions, with more up-to-date snapshots and CVS information listed on the binutils project page. Please ask MMIX binutils questions on the GNU binutils development mailing list, binutils@sources.redhat.com.

By H-P
Latest update: 2001-12-02