gas/NEWS

   1 -*- text -*-
   2
   3 * Support for SH2E added.
   4
   5 * GASP has now been removed.
   6
   7 * Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C4x and TMS320C3x series of
   8   DSP's contributed by Michael Hayes and Svein E. Seldal.
   9
  10 * Support for the Ubicom IP2xxx microcontroller added.
  11
  12 Changes in 2.13:
  13
  14 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
  15   and FR500 included.
  16
  17 * Support for DLX processor added.
  18
  19 * GASP has now been deprecated and will be removed in a future release.  Use
  20   the macro facilities in GAS instead.
  21
  22 * GASP now correctly parses floating point numbers. Unless the base is
  23   explicitly specified, they are interpreted as decimal numbers regardless of
  24   the currently specified base.
  25
  26 Changes in 2.12:
  27
  28 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
  29
  30 * Support for the OpenRISC 32-bit embedded processor by OpenCores.
  31
  32 * The ARM assembler now accepts -march=..., -mcpu=... and -mfpu=... for
  33   specifying the target instruction set.  The old method of specifying the
  34   target processor has been deprecated, but is still accepted for
  35   compatibility.
  36
  37 * Support for the VFP floating-point instruction set has been added to
  38   the ARM assembler.
  39
  40 * New psuedo op: .incbin to include a set of binary data at a given point
  41   in the assembly.  Contributed by Anders Norlander.
  42
  43 * The MIPS assembler now accepts -march/-mtune. -mcpu has been deprecated
  44   but still works for compatability.
  45
  46 * The MIPS assembler no longer issues a warning by default when it
  47   generates a nop instruction from a macro. The new command line option
  48   -n will turn on the warning.
  49
  50 Changes in 2.11:
  51
  52 * Support for PDP-11 and 2.11BSD a.out format, by Lars Brinkhoff.
  53
  54 * x86 gas now supports the full Pentium4 instruction set.
  55
  56 * Support for AMD x86-64 architecture, by Jan Hubicka, SuSE Labs.
  57
  58 * Support for Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12.
  59
  60 * Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C54x (tic54x).
  61
  62 * Support for IA-64.
  63
  64 * Support for i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
  65
  66 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
  67
  68 * x86 gas has a new .arch pseudo op to specify the target CPU architecture.
  69
  70 * x86 gas -q command line option quietens warnings about register size changes
  71   due to suffix, indirect jmp/call without `*', stand-alone prefixes, and
  72   translating various deprecated floating point instructions.
  73
  74 Changes in 2.10:
  75
  76 * Support for the ARM msr instruction was changed to only allow an immediate
  77   operand when altering the flags field.
  78
  79 * Support for ATMEL AVR.
  80
  81 * Support for IBM 370 ELF.  Somewhat experimental.
  82
  83 * Support for numbers with suffixes.
  84
  85 * Added support for breaking to the end of repeat loops.
  86
  87 * Added support for parallel instruction syntax (DOUBLEBAR_PARALLEL).
  88
  89 * New .elseif pseudo-op added.
  90
  91 * New --fatal-warnings option.
  92
  93 * picoJava architecture support added.
  94
  95 * Motorola MCore 210 processor support added.
  96
  97 * A new pseudo-op .intel_syntax has been implemented to allow gas to parse i386
  98   assembly programs with intel syntax.
  99
 100 * New pseudo-ops .func,.endfunc to aid in debugging user-written assembler code.
 101
 102 * Added -gdwarf2 option to generate DWARF 2 debugging information.
 103
 104 * Full 16-bit mode support for i386.
 105
 106 * Greatly improved instruction operand checking for i386.  This change will
 107   produce errors or warnings on incorrect assembly code that previous versions
 108   of gas accepted.  If you get unexpected messages from code that worked with
 109   older versions of gas, please double check the code before reporting a bug.
 110
 111 * Weak symbol support added for COFF targets.
 112
 113 * Mitsubishi D30V support added.
 114
 115 * Texas Instruments c80 (tms320c80) support added.
 116
 117 * i960 ELF support added.
 118
 119 * ARM ELF support added.
 120
 121 Changes in 2.9:
 122
 123 * Texas Instruments c30 (tms320c30) support added.
 124
 125 * The assembler now optimizes the exception frame information generated by egcs
 126   and gcc 2.8.  The new --traditional-format option disables this optimization.
 127
 128 * Added --gstabs option to generate stabs debugging information.
 129
 130 * The -a option takes a new suboption, m (e.g., -alm) to expand macros in a
 131   listing.
 132
 133 * Added -MD option to print dependencies.
 134
 135 Changes in 2.8:
 136
 137 * BeOS support added.
 138
 139 * MIPS16 support added.
 140
 141 * Motorola ColdFire 5200 support added (configure for m68k and use -m5200).
 142
 143 * Alpha/VMS support added.
 144
 145 * m68k options --base-size-default-16, --base-size-default-32,
 146   --disp-size-default-16, and --disp-size-default-32 added.
 147
 148 * The alignment directives now take an optional third argument, which is the
 149   maximum number of bytes to skip.  If doing the alignment would require
 150   skipping more than the given number of bytes, the alignment is not done at
 151   all.
 152
 153 * The ELF assembler has a new pseudo-op, .symver, used for symbol versioning.
 154
 155 * The -a option takes a new suboption, c (e.g., -alc), to skip false
 156   conditionals in listings.
 157
 158 * Added new pseudo-op, .equiv; it's like .equ, except that it is an error if
 159   the symbol is already defined.
 160
 161 Changes in 2.7:
 162
 163 * The PowerPC assembler now allows the use of symbolic register names (r0,
 164   etc.) if -mregnames is used.  Symbolic names preceded by a '%' (%r0, etc.)
 165   can be used any time.  PowerPC 860 move to/from SPR instructions have been
 166   added.
 167
 168 * Alpha Linux (ELF) support added.
 169
 170 * PowerPC ELF support added.
 171
 172 * m68k Linux (ELF) support added.
 173
 174 * i960 Hx/Jx support added.
 175
 176 * i386/PowerPC gnu-win32 support added.
 177
 178 * SCO ELF support added.  For OpenServer 5 targets (i386-unknown-sco3.2v5) the
 179   default is to build COFF-only support.  To get a set of tools that generate
 180   ELF (they'll understand both COFF and ELF), you must configure with
 181   target=i386-unknown-sco3.2v5elf.
 182
 183 * m88k-motorola-sysv3* support added.
 184
 185 Changes in 2.6:
 186
 187 * Gas now directly supports macros, without requiring GASP.
 188
 189 * Gas now has an MRI assembler compatibility mode.  Use -M or --mri to select
 190   MRI mode.  The pseudo-op ``.mri 1'' will switch into the MRI mode until the
 191   ``.mri 0'' is seen; this can be convenient for inline assembler code.
 192
 193 * Added --defsym SYM=VALUE option.
 194
 195 * Added -mips4 support to MIPS assembler.
 196
 197 * Added PIC support to Solaris and SPARC SunOS 4 assembler.
 198
 199 Changes in 2.4:
 200
 201 * Converted this directory to use an autoconf-generated configure script.
 202
 203 * ARM support, from Richard Earnshaw.
 204
 205 * Updated VMS support, from Pat Rankin, including considerably improved
 206   debugging support.
 207
 208 * Support for the control registers in the 68060.
 209
 210 * Handles (ignores) a new directive ".this_GCC_requires_the_GNU_assembler", to
 211   provide for possible future gcc changes, for targets where gas provides some
 212   features not available in the native assembler.  If the native assembler is
 213   used, it should become obvious pretty quickly what the problem is.
 214
 215 * Usage message is available with "--help".
 216
 217 * The GNU Assembler Preprocessor (gasp) is included.  (Actually, it was in 2.3
 218   also, but didn't get into the NEWS file.)
 219
 220 * Weak symbol support for a.out.
 221
 222 * A bug in the listing code which could cause an infinite loop has been fixed.
 223   Bugs in listings when generating a COFF object file have also been fixed.
 224
 225 * Initial i386-svr4 PIC implementation from Eric Youngdale, based on code by
 226   Paul Kranenburg.
 227
 228 * Improved Alpha support.  Immediate constants can have a much larger range
 229   now. Support for the 21164 has been contributed by Digital.
 230
 231 * Updated ns32k (pc532-mach, netbsd532) support from Ian Dall.
 232
 233 Changes in 2.3:
 234
 235 * Mach i386 support, by David Mackenzie and Ken Raeburn.
 236
 237 * RS/6000 and PowerPC support by Ian Taylor.
 238
 239 * VMS command scripts (make-gas.com, config-gas.com) have been worked on a bit,
 240   based on mail received from various people.  The `-h#' option should work
 241   again too.
 242
 243 * HP-PA work, by Jeff Law.  Note, for the PA, gas-2.3 has been designed to work
 244   with gdb-4.12 and gcc-2.6.  As gcc-2.6 has not been released yet, a special
 245   version of gcc-2.5.8 has been patched to work with gas-2.3.  You can retrieve
 246   this special version of gcc-2.5.8 via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu
 247   in the "dist" directory.
 248
 249 * Vax support in gas fixed for BSD, so it builds and seems to run a couple
 250   simple tests okay.  I haven't put it through extensive testing.  (GNU make is
 251   currently required for BSD 4.3 builds.)
 252
 253 * Support for the DEC Alpha, running OSF/1 (ECOFF format).  The gas support is
 254   based on code donated by CMU, which used an a.out-based format.  I'm afraid
 255   the alpha-a.out support is pretty badly mangled, and much of it removed;
 256   making it work will require rewriting it as BFD support for the format anyways.
 257
 258 * Irix 5 support.
 259
 260 * The test suites have been fixed up a bit, so that they should work with a
 261   couple different versions of expect and dejagnu.
 262
 263 * Symbols' values are now handled internally as expressions, permitting more
 264   flexibility in evaluating them in some cases.  Some details of relocation
 265   handling have also changed, and simple constant pool management has been
 266   added, to make the Alpha port easier.
 267
 268 * New option "--statistics" for printing out program run times.  This is
 269   intended to be used with the gcc "-Q" option, which prints out times spent in
 270   various phases of compilation.  (You should be able to get all of them
 271   printed out with "gcc -Q -Wa,--statistics", I think.)
 272
 273 Changes in 2.2:
 274
 275 * RS/6000 AIX and MIPS SGI Irix 5 support has been added.
 276
 277 * Configurations that are still in development (and therefore are convenient to
 278   have listed in configure.in) still get rejected without a minor change to
 279   gas/Makefile.in, so people not doing development work shouldn't get the
 280   impression that support for such configurations is actually believed to be
 281   reliable.
 282
 283 * The program name (usually "as") is printed when a fatal error message is
 284   displayed.  This should prevent some confusion about the source of occasional
 285   messages about "internal errors".
 286
 287 * ELF support is falling into place.  Support for the 386 should be working.
 288   Support for SPARC Solaris is in.  HPPA support from Utah is being integrated.
 289
 290 * Symbol values are maintained as expressions instead of being immediately
 291   boiled down to add-symbol, sub-symbol, and constant.  This permits slightly
 292   more complex calculations involving symbols whose values are not alreadey
 293   known.
 294
 295 * DBX-style debugging info ("stabs") is now supported for COFF formats.
 296   If any stabs directives are seen in the source, GAS will create two new
 297   sections: a ".stab" and a ".stabstr" section.  The format of the .stab
 298   section is nearly identical to the a.out symbol format, and .stabstr is
 299   its string table.  For this to be useful, you must have configured GCC
 300   to generate stabs (by defining DBX_DEBUGGING_INFO), and must have a GDB
 301   that can use the stab sections (4.11 or later).
 302
 303 * LynxOS, on i386 and m68k platforms, is now supported.  SPARC LynxOS
 304   support is in progress.
 305
 306 Changes in 2.1:
 307
 308 * Several small fixes for i386-aix (PS/2) support from Minh Tran-Le have been
 309   incorporated, but not well tested yet.
 310
 311 * Altered the opcode table split for m68k; it should require less VM to compile
 312   with gcc now.
 313
 314 * Some minor adjustments to add (Convergent Technologies') Miniframe support,
 315   suggested by Ronald Cole.
 316
 317 * HPPA support (running OSF only, not HPUX) has been contributed by Utah.  This
 318   includes improved ELF support, which I've started adapting for SPARC Solaris
 319   2.x.  Integration isn't completely, so it probably won't work.
 320
 321 * HP9000/300 support, donated by HP, has been merged in.
 322
 323 * Ian Taylor has finished the MIPS ECOFF (Ultrix, Irix) support.
 324
 325 * Better error messages for unsupported configurations (e.g., hppa-hpux).
 326
 327 * Test suite framework is starting to become reasonable.
 328
 329 Changes in 2.0:
 330
 331 * Mostly bug fixes.
 332
 333 * Some more merging of BFD and ELF code, but ELF still doesn't work.
 334
 335 Changes in 1.94:
 336
 337 * BFD merge is partly done.  Adventurous souls may try giving configure the
 338   "--with-bfd-assembler" option.  Currently, ELF format requires it, a.out
 339   format accepts it; SPARC CPU accepts it.  It's the default only for OS "elf"
 340   or "solaris".  (ELF isn't really supported yet.  It needs work.  I've got
 341   some code from Utah for HP-PA ELF, and from DG for m88k ELF, but they're not
 342   fully merged yet.)
 343
 344 * The 68K opcode table has been split in half.  It should now compile under gcc
 345   without consuming ridiculous amounts of memory.
 346
 347 * A couple data structures have been reduced in size.  This should result in
 348   saving a little bit of space at runtime.
 349
 350 * Support for MIPS, from OSF and Ralph Campbell, has been merged in.  The OSF
 351   code provided ROSE format support, which I haven't merged in yet.  (I can
 352   make it available, if anyone wants to try it out.)  Ralph's code, for BSD
 353   4.4, supports a.out format.  We don't have ECOFF support in just yet; it's
 354   coming.
 355
 356 * Support for the Hitachi H8/500 has been added.
 357
 358 * VMS host and target support should be working now, thanks chiefly to Eric
 359   Youngdale.
 360
 361 Changes in 1.93.01:
 362
 363 * For m68k, support for more processors has been added: 68040, CPU32, 68851.
 364
 365 * For i386, .align is now power-of-two; was number-of-bytes.
 366
 367 * For m68k, "%" is now accepted before register names.  For COFF format, which
 368   doesn't use underscore prefixes for C labels, it is required, so variable "a0"
 369   can be distinguished from the register.
 370
 371 * Last public release was 1.38.  Lots of configuration changes since then, lots
 372   of new CPUs and formats, lots of bugs fixed.
 373
 374 \f
 375 Local variables:
 376 fill-column: 79
 377 End: