gas/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C4x and TMS320C3x series of
   4   DSP's contributed by Michael Hayes and Svein E. Seldal.
   5
   6 * Support for the Ubicom IP2xxx microcontroller added.
   7
   8 Changes in 2.13:
   9
  10 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
  11   and FR500 included.
  12
  13 * Support for DLX processor added.
  14
  15 * GASP has now been deprecated and will be removed in a future release.  Use
  16   the macro facilities in GAS instead.
  17
  18 * GASP now correctly parses floating point numbers. Unless the base is
  19   explicitly specified, they are interpreted as decimal numbers regardless of
  20   the currently specified base.
  21
  22 Changes in 2.12:
  23
  24 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
  25
  26 * Support for the OpenRISC 32-bit embedded processor by OpenCores.
  27
  28 * The ARM assembler now accepts -march=..., -mcpu=... and -mfpu=... for
  29   specifying the target instruction set.  The old method of specifying the
  30   target processor has been deprecated, but is still accepted for
  31   compatibility.
  32
  33 * Support for the VFP floating-point instruction set has been added to
  34   the ARM assembler.
  35
  36 * New psuedo op: .incbin to include a set of binary data at a given point
  37   in the assembly.  Contributed by Anders Norlander.
  38
  39 * The MIPS assembler now accepts -march/-mtune. -mcpu has been deprecated
  40   but still works for compatability.
  41
  42 * The MIPS assembler no longer issues a warning by default when it
  43   generates a nop instruction from a macro. The new command line option
  44   -n will turn on the warning.
  45
  46 Changes in 2.11:
  47
  48 * Support for PDP-11 and 2.11BSD a.out format, by Lars Brinkhoff.
  49
  50 * x86 gas now supports the full Pentium4 instruction set.
  51
  52 * Support for AMD x86-64 architecture, by Jan Hubicka, SuSE Labs.
  53
  54 * Support for Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12.
  55
  56 * Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C54x (tic54x).
  57
  58 * Support for IA-64.
  59
  60 * Support for i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
  61
  62 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
  63
  64 * x86 gas has a new .arch pseudo op to specify the target CPU architecture.
  65
  66 * x86 gas -q command line option quietens warnings about register size changes
  67   due to suffix, indirect jmp/call without `*', stand-alone prefixes, and
  68   translating various deprecated floating point instructions.
  69
  70 Changes in 2.10:
  71
  72 * Support for the ARM msr instruction was changed to only allow an immediate
  73   operand when altering the flags field.
  74
  75 * Support for ATMEL AVR.
  76
  77 * Support for IBM 370 ELF.  Somewhat experimental.
  78
  79 * Support for numbers with suffixes.
  80
  81 * Added support for breaking to the end of repeat loops.
  82
  83 * Added support for parallel instruction syntax (DOUBLEBAR_PARALLEL).
  84
  85 * New .elseif pseudo-op added.
  86
  87 * New --fatal-warnings option.
  88
  89 * picoJava architecture support added.
  90
  91 * Motorola MCore 210 processor support added.
  92
  93 * A new pseudo-op .intel_syntax has been implemented to allow gas to parse i386
  94   assembly programs with intel syntax.
  95
  96 * New pseudo-ops .func,.endfunc to aid in debugging user-written assembler code.
  97
  98 * Added -gdwarf2 option to generate DWARF 2 debugging information.
  99
 100 * Full 16-bit mode support for i386.
 101
 102 * Greatly improved instruction operand checking for i386.  This change will
 103   produce errors or warnings on incorrect assembly code that previous versions
 104   of gas accepted.  If you get unexpected messages from code that worked with
 105   older versions of gas, please double check the code before reporting a bug.
 106
 107 * Weak symbol support added for COFF targets.
 108
 109 * Mitsubishi D30V support added.
 110
 111 * Texas Instruments c80 (tms320c80) support added.
 112
 113 * i960 ELF support added.
 114
 115 * ARM ELF support added.
 116
 117 Changes in 2.9:
 118
 119 * Texas Instruments c30 (tms320c30) support added.
 120
 121 * The assembler now optimizes the exception frame information generated by egcs
 122   and gcc 2.8.  The new --traditional-format option disables this optimization.
 123
 124 * Added --gstabs option to generate stabs debugging information.
 125
 126 * The -a option takes a new suboption, m (e.g., -alm) to expand macros in a
 127   listing.
 128
 129 * Added -MD option to print dependencies.
 130
 131 Changes in 2.8:
 132
 133 * BeOS support added.
 134
 135 * MIPS16 support added.
 136
 137 * Motorola ColdFire 5200 support added (configure for m68k and use -m5200).
 138
 139 * Alpha/VMS support added.
 140
 141 * m68k options --base-size-default-16, --base-size-default-32,
 142   --disp-size-default-16, and --disp-size-default-32 added.
 143
 144 * The alignment directives now take an optional third argument, which is the
 145   maximum number of bytes to skip.  If doing the alignment would require
 146   skipping more than the given number of bytes, the alignment is not done at
 147   all.
 148
 149 * The ELF assembler has a new pseudo-op, .symver, used for symbol versioning.
 150
 151 * The -a option takes a new suboption, c (e.g., -alc), to skip false
 152   conditionals in listings.
 153
 154 * Added new pseudo-op, .equiv; it's like .equ, except that it is an error if
 155   the symbol is already defined.
 156
 157 Changes in 2.7:
 158
 159 * The PowerPC assembler now allows the use of symbolic register names (r0,
 160   etc.) if -mregnames is used.  Symbolic names preceded by a '%' (%r0, etc.)
 161   can be used any time.  PowerPC 860 move to/from SPR instructions have been
 162   added.
 163
 164 * Alpha Linux (ELF) support added.
 165
 166 * PowerPC ELF support added.
 167
 168 * m68k Linux (ELF) support added.
 169
 170 * i960 Hx/Jx support added.
 171
 172 * i386/PowerPC gnu-win32 support added.
 173
 174 * SCO ELF support added.  For OpenServer 5 targets (i386-unknown-sco3.2v5) the
 175   default is to build COFF-only support.  To get a set of tools that generate
 176   ELF (they'll understand both COFF and ELF), you must configure with
 177   target=i386-unknown-sco3.2v5elf.
 178
 179 * m88k-motorola-sysv3* support added.
 180
 181 Changes in 2.6:
 182
 183 * Gas now directly supports macros, without requiring GASP.
 184
 185 * Gas now has an MRI assembler compatibility mode.  Use -M or --mri to select
 186   MRI mode.  The pseudo-op ``.mri 1'' will switch into the MRI mode until the
 187   ``.mri 0'' is seen; this can be convenient for inline assembler code.
 188
 189 * Added --defsym SYM=VALUE option.
 190
 191 * Added -mips4 support to MIPS assembler.
 192
 193 * Added PIC support to Solaris and SPARC SunOS 4 assembler.
 194
 195 Changes in 2.4:
 196
 197 * Converted this directory to use an autoconf-generated configure script.
 198
 199 * ARM support, from Richard Earnshaw.
 200
 201 * Updated VMS support, from Pat Rankin, including considerably improved
 202   debugging support.
 203
 204 * Support for the control registers in the 68060.
 205
 206 * Handles (ignores) a new directive ".this_GCC_requires_the_GNU_assembler", to
 207   provide for possible future gcc changes, for targets where gas provides some
 208   features not available in the native assembler.  If the native assembler is
 209   used, it should become obvious pretty quickly what the problem is.
 210
 211 * Usage message is available with "--help".
 212
 213 * The GNU Assembler Preprocessor (gasp) is included.  (Actually, it was in 2.3
 214   also, but didn't get into the NEWS file.)
 215
 216 * Weak symbol support for a.out.
 217
 218 * A bug in the listing code which could cause an infinite loop has been fixed.
 219   Bugs in listings when generating a COFF object file have also been fixed.
 220
 221 * Initial i386-svr4 PIC implementation from Eric Youngdale, based on code by
 222   Paul Kranenburg.
 223
 224 * Improved Alpha support.  Immediate constants can have a much larger range
 225   now. Support for the 21164 has been contributed by Digital.
 226
 227 * Updated ns32k (pc532-mach, netbsd532) support from Ian Dall.
 228
 229 Changes in 2.3:
 230
 231 * Mach i386 support, by David Mackenzie and Ken Raeburn.
 232
 233 * RS/6000 and PowerPC support by Ian Taylor.
 234
 235 * VMS command scripts (make-gas.com, config-gas.com) have been worked on a bit,
 236   based on mail received from various people.  The `-h#' option should work
 237   again too.
 238
 239 * HP-PA work, by Jeff Law.  Note, for the PA, gas-2.3 has been designed to work
 240   with gdb-4.12 and gcc-2.6.  As gcc-2.6 has not been released yet, a special
 241   version of gcc-2.5.8 has been patched to work with gas-2.3.  You can retrieve
 242   this special version of gcc-2.5.8 via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu
 243   in the "dist" directory.
 244
 245 * Vax support in gas fixed for BSD, so it builds and seems to run a couple
 246   simple tests okay.  I haven't put it through extensive testing.  (GNU make is
 247   currently required for BSD 4.3 builds.)
 248
 249 * Support for the DEC Alpha, running OSF/1 (ECOFF format).  The gas support is
 250   based on code donated by CMU, which used an a.out-based format.  I'm afraid
 251   the alpha-a.out support is pretty badly mangled, and much of it removed;
 252   making it work will require rewriting it as BFD support for the format anyways.
 253
 254 * Irix 5 support.
 255
 256 * The test suites have been fixed up a bit, so that they should work with a
 257   couple different versions of expect and dejagnu.
 258
 259 * Symbols' values are now handled internally as expressions, permitting more
 260   flexibility in evaluating them in some cases.  Some details of relocation
 261   handling have also changed, and simple constant pool management has been
 262   added, to make the Alpha port easier.
 263
 264 * New option "--statistics" for printing out program run times.  This is
 265   intended to be used with the gcc "-Q" option, which prints out times spent in
 266   various phases of compilation.  (You should be able to get all of them
 267   printed out with "gcc -Q -Wa,--statistics", I think.)
 268
 269 Changes in 2.2:
 270
 271 * RS/6000 AIX and MIPS SGI Irix 5 support has been added.
 272
 273 * Configurations that are still in development (and therefore are convenient to
 274   have listed in configure.in) still get rejected without a minor change to
 275   gas/Makefile.in, so people not doing development work shouldn't get the
 276   impression that support for such configurations is actually believed to be
 277   reliable.
 278
 279 * The program name (usually "as") is printed when a fatal error message is
 280   displayed.  This should prevent some confusion about the source of occasional
 281   messages about "internal errors".
 282
 283 * ELF support is falling into place.  Support for the 386 should be working.
 284   Support for SPARC Solaris is in.  HPPA support from Utah is being integrated.
 285
 286 * Symbol values are maintained as expressions instead of being immediately
 287   boiled down to add-symbol, sub-symbol, and constant.  This permits slightly
 288   more complex calculations involving symbols whose values are not alreadey
 289   known.
 290
 291 * DBX-style debugging info ("stabs") is now supported for COFF formats.
 292   If any stabs directives are seen in the source, GAS will create two new
 293   sections: a ".stab" and a ".stabstr" section.  The format of the .stab
 294   section is nearly identical to the a.out symbol format, and .stabstr is
 295   its string table.  For this to be useful, you must have configured GCC
 296   to generate stabs (by defining DBX_DEBUGGING_INFO), and must have a GDB
 297   that can use the stab sections (4.11 or later).
 298
 299 * LynxOS, on i386 and m68k platforms, is now supported.  SPARC LynxOS
 300   support is in progress.
 301
 302 Changes in 2.1:
 303
 304 * Several small fixes for i386-aix (PS/2) support from Minh Tran-Le have been
 305   incorporated, but not well tested yet.
 306
 307 * Altered the opcode table split for m68k; it should require less VM to compile
 308   with gcc now.
 309
 310 * Some minor adjustments to add (Convergent Technologies') Miniframe support,
 311   suggested by Ronald Cole.
 312
 313 * HPPA support (running OSF only, not HPUX) has been contributed by Utah.  This
 314   includes improved ELF support, which I've started adapting for SPARC Solaris
 315   2.x.  Integration isn't completely, so it probably won't work.
 316
 317 * HP9000/300 support, donated by HP, has been merged in.
 318
 319 * Ian Taylor has finished the MIPS ECOFF (Ultrix, Irix) support.
 320
 321 * Better error messages for unsupported configurations (e.g., hppa-hpux).
 322
 323 * Test suite framework is starting to become reasonable.
 324
 325 Changes in 2.0:
 326
 327 * Mostly bug fixes.
 328
 329 * Some more merging of BFD and ELF code, but ELF still doesn't work.
 330
 331 Changes in 1.94:
 332
 333 * BFD merge is partly done.  Adventurous souls may try giving configure the
 334   "--with-bfd-assembler" option.  Currently, ELF format requires it, a.out
 335   format accepts it; SPARC CPU accepts it.  It's the default only for OS "elf"
 336   or "solaris".  (ELF isn't really supported yet.  It needs work.  I've got
 337   some code from Utah for HP-PA ELF, and from DG for m88k ELF, but they're not
 338   fully merged yet.)
 339
 340 * The 68K opcode table has been split in half.  It should now compile under gcc
 341   without consuming ridiculous amounts of memory.
 342
 343 * A couple data structures have been reduced in size.  This should result in
 344   saving a little bit of space at runtime.
 345
 346 * Support for MIPS, from OSF and Ralph Campbell, has been merged in.  The OSF
 347   code provided ROSE format support, which I haven't merged in yet.  (I can
 348   make it available, if anyone wants to try it out.)  Ralph's code, for BSD
 349   4.4, supports a.out format.  We don't have ECOFF support in just yet; it's
 350   coming.
 351
 352 * Support for the Hitachi H8/500 has been added.
 353
 354 * VMS host and target support should be working now, thanks chiefly to Eric
 355   Youngdale.
 356
 357 Changes in 1.93.01:
 358
 359 * For m68k, support for more processors has been added: 68040, CPU32, 68851.
 360
 361 * For i386, .align is now power-of-two; was number-of-bytes.
 362
 363 * For m68k, "%" is now accepted before register names.  For COFF format, which
 364   doesn't use underscore prefixes for C labels, it is required, so variable "a0"
 365   can be distinguished from the register.
 366
 367 * Last public release was 1.38.  Lots of configuration changes since then, lots
 368   of new CPUs and formats, lots of bugs fixed.
 369
 370 \f
 371 Local variables:
 372 fill-column: 79
 373 End: