New Architecture: Parallax Propeller

[ikskuh]

i'm planning to work on a project with the Parallax Propeller 2 and i didn't want to waste my time with C again.

I want to use the C backend to compile Zig to C and leverage existing compilers to work with Zig instead of C.

Can we add a propeller and propeller2 architecture with each having only a generic cpu with no cpu features?

Byte size is 8 bit, word/register size is 32 bit

The required address spaces are ram and cog for both architectures, and propeller2 has an additional lut address space.

Related: #7202

I'll try doing that myself when it's accepted to be done

[alexrp]

Based on Andrew's previous comment here, I would suggest just going ahead with a PR. It doesn't seem to me like this would be controversial.

That said, a couple of questions:

• What sets propeller2 apart from propeller that makes it worthwhile to have it be a separate Arch tag rather than modelling it with a CPU feature?
• Has this architecture been used in the GNU ecosystem at all? If so, is there a precedent for what the architecture component of the triple should be called, and are we following it?

[ikskuh]

What sets propeller2 apart from propeller that makes it worthwhile to have it be a separate Arch tag rather than modelling it with a CPU feature?

Completely different ISA 🤣

Has this architecture been used in the GNU ecosystem at all? If so, is there a precedent for what the architecture component of the triple should be called, and are we following it?

https://www.parallax.com/propeller-2/programming-tools/

Not that i know of, but there's a LLVM port: https://github.com/ne75/p2llvm

[andrewrk]

Go for it 👍

[alexrp]

• https://github.com/parallaxinc/propgcc/blob/b280e7a77103d479e82cc687711de6a45579ad70/gcc/gcc/config.gcc#L404-L406
• https://github.com/parallaxinc/propgcc/blob/b280e7a77103d479e82cc687711de6a45579ad70/gcc/gcc/config/propeller/propeller.opt#L74-L76

FWIW, it doesn't seem like they're using a distinct propeller2 component. That's not to say that wouldn't make sense, just that it might be interesting to investigate why.