Archelon Ischyros Archelon Inc.

CSR Kalimba C Compiler

There are three versions of the Kalimba CPU: one with 16 bit registers (the Kalimba), one with 24 bit registers (the Kalimba 3), and one with 32bit registers (the Kalimba 4).

The C compiler is a stand-alone program, which you run from a command line window. It is not integrated into the CSR IDE. The compiler generates kalasm2 assembler code, which you can then assemble and link using the CSR tools, either from within their IDE or on the command line.

The compiler supports both data memory spaces and also provides support for declaring circular buffers. However, to actually use the circular buffers, you will have to use in-line assembly code. This is somewhat simplified by the C compiler providing a useful facility to refer to C variables in the inline assembly code.

However, you should be aware that the compiler

In spite of all this, We do have at least one client who wrote his application completely in C!

The Archelon compiler targets that part of the instruction set that makes it look like a fairly nice machine with general purpose registers. The job of writing cool code that uses instruction level paralellism and the special addressing modes using AGUs is left up to the assembler programmer. However, the C compiler has features that make it relatively easy to write C callable functions using inline assembly, with lots of features that let you reference variables declared in C code.

The lack of a stack overflow check is pretty typical of many embedded systems compilers. Programmers just have to be very careful about allocating local variables. We have a tool which can generate a graph of any non-recursive C program and display the total amount of stack space used. It would be pretty easy to add a stack overflow check to the compiler, but it would make the code larger and slower. So far, it has not been requested.

For your further information, please have a look at one of Kalimba C User's Guide, Kalimba3 C User's Guide, or Kalimba4 C User's Guide.

The price of the compiler, which includes a site license and support for one year, is US$995. We deliver by email or by a download link. If you eventually decide to order it, please reference the product code "WIN32/Kalimba", "WIN32/Kalimba3", or "WIN32/Kalimba4" in your purchase order.

The compiler runs under Microsoft Windows (any version).

Last Revised 2020/12/20

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