Responses to 8086 query

[bazelman at wivax.UUCP]

Recently, I posted a query concerning 8086 cross-generation software for
UNIX.  Below are the responses which I received.

Thanks again to all those who responded.

Rudy Bazelmans
Wang Institute
(617) 967-2609 (8-12 EST)

>From decvax!ittvax!ittral!malloy 
William P. Malloy, ITT Telecom, B & CC Engineering Group, Raleigh NC

Here we have a C cross compiler (and assembler, linker, loader) from
Intermetrics Inc.  It seems pretty good, but I'm in software support not
development, and our development engineers are Intel PL/M types, so I can't be
too sure.  We ran some benchmarks before we bought it, and it came out okay.
Most importantly they don't get into the royalty crap that Whitesmiths and
others do for using code generated from their tools, nor using their I/O
library in production systems.  They prefer to sell binary, but we bought
source (It takes TNT to blast it out of them and it costs a BUNDLE) $25,000
then, it may have gone up since then.  Plus when perverts here wanted their
new PASCAL front-end (don't ask why, it's a long and *GROADY* story) they
wanted another $ 14,000.  I think the binarys alot more reasonable, something
like $ 5-6,000.  A simulator is also available from Systems & Software for
it, Intermetrics doesn't sell it, so they co-operated with S&S developing it.

I can send you the phone number of the sales rep if you want.  They're located
in Cambridge, Mass so it's probably easy to call.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>From decvax!mcvax!sara70!gijs
Gijs Mos, Free University, Dept. of Biology

Try the amsterdam compiler kit. It provides C, pascal and 
assemblers for 808x, 680xx, pdp11 and others.
Contact {seismo,decvax,philabs}!mcvax!vu44!sater for more
info.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>From bbncca!iima!johnl
John Levine, P.O.Box 349, Cambridge MA 02238-0349 (617-494-1400)

I've been trying for several months to locate a decent C cross compiler
to run under Unix on a Pyramid that we'd like to buy.  So far, no luck.

The two that I've looked at in any detail are Lattice's and
Interactive's.  The Lattice compiler is the same one that they sell for
native compilation on MS-DOS machines.  It works, but a few benchmarks
showed that the compiler on a Pyramid was no faster than on a PC AT,
which is ridiculous.  Also, the linker (PLINK86 from Phoenix) was very
hard to get working on a 32 bit machine and still very buggy.
Lattice still only supports V7 C without enum types or structure assignemnt
or argument passing.  They also have some strange over-optimization bugs that
make unions practically useless.

Interactive's C compiler works great, since it's the same one that they
use to compile PC/IX, but at the moment it's small model only and produces
Unix-flavored object modules rather than MS-DOS .EXE executables.  I'm
still negotiating with them, but who knows.

We looked at Intermetrics' compiler for a few minutes, but it's very
slow, generates lousy code, and appears only half-heartedly supported.

If you find a cross development system that compiles the full C language
and produces MS-DOS executables, I'd sure like to hear about it.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>From linus!allegra!fisher!djl 

I have a cross-compiler/linker for the 86/286, and it might be for sale.
I would have to talk to my employers.  If you are interested, 
drop me a note and I will talk to my superiors on Monday.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>From decvax!trwrb!desint!geoff 
Geoff Kuenning

My employer, First Systems Corporation, specializes in cross-development
tools for various hosts and targets.  The 8086 is our oldest supported
target.  We are currently working on a Unix re-host of our software.
Unfortunately, I am fairly new, and don't know the schedule (although early
'85 is not implausible given the date today).  For more information, contact:
	
	First Systems Corporation
	865 Manhattan Beach Blvd.
	Manhattan Beach, CA  90266
	(805) 546-5581

Just ask to talk to the East Coast Sales Rep.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

>From masscomp!sda!hpdsd!hpsvla!hpsvlc!don 
Don Bennett

I believe the people at Lattice have a version of their C compiler
that will run under UNIX. I've seen a version running under System III
(HPUX really).  It generates the same format obj files as under MS-DOS.
You might try giving them a call.  I don't really know where, but its
somewhere in the Chicago area.  



-- 

Rudy Bazelmans - Wang Institute, (617) 967-2609
[apollo, bbncca, cadmus, decvax, harvard, linus, masscomp]!wivax!bazelmans