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From: David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no>
Newsgroups: comp.arch.embedded
Subject: Re: AM623 experiences
Date: Sun, 24 Nov 2024 11:42:43 +0100
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On 24/11/2024 00:56, Don Y wrote:
> On 11/23/2024 12:57 PM, Grant Edwards wrote:
>> On 2024-11-23, David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> wrote:
>>> On 23/11/2024 09:15, Don Y wrote:
>>>> I'm looking to move my design onto said platform.
>>>>
>>>> Any first-hand experiences to share?
>>>>
>>>> Bugs in silicon, toolchain, support, etc.?
>>>
>>> I've no experience with that device at all, but from experience with
>>> other toolchains provided by TI over the years, watch out for zero
>>> initialisation of variables in the bss.
> 
> [Hmmm... I don't see your post, David.  <frown>  Something must be
> hosed in my server.  (actually, I don't see MANY posts, here!  Quiet?)]
> 

I don't think there is anything odd with my posting or the server on my 
side (eternal-september).  But Grant quoted the most important part of 
my post - the rest was more venting than informative!

It /is/ quiet in this newsgroup.

> BSS is a good warning.  I've been using other tools with the ARM that
> I've "abandoned" ("moved past" might be a kinder way of reference).
> 
> I tend to rely on vendors tools *if* there is likely to be some
> bug that the tools can workaround -- that a third-party vendor
> may not be aware of (or address).
> 

ARM is pretty good at making sure they cover all known bugs - so their 
gcc toolchain builds tend to have backported patches that are not in the 
mainstream gcc source tree until a version or two later.  Mistakes can 
happen, of course, and you can look at the issue trackers for their 
toolchain builds to see some of them.  But for the kind of cores in 
question here, the microcontroller vendors have little influence over 
the cores themselves, and therefore less scope of introducing 
vendor-specific bugs.

>> For the cortex M4, I'd avoid using TI's toolchain if at all possible.
>> Download a copy of GCC from ARM.
> 
> This is an A53 (ARMv8) -- at least the "main cores" are.  There's
> also an M4(F) -- and, as typical of ARM, a couple of other
> "specialty processors".
> 
>> The general rule I've found to be true for the past 40 years is that
>> software/tools supplied by silicon vendors is crap.
> 
> That's a direct analog of the issues with "sample applications" for
> hardware devices!
> 
> What about "support"?  Are there anything other than trained monkeys
> available?  Or, is everything "forum based" (what a great scam!
> outsource your support to your CUSTOMERS!!)
> 

It is not uncommon for vendor employees to take part in these forums 
too.  It is not actually a bad idea, because it means that when they 
answer a customer's question, the answer is available for anyone else 
doing a search.