Compile for ARM Cortex M3 using standard GCC?

Question

Is it possible to compile C/C++ code for the ARM Cortex M3 (LPC1768) using vanilla GCC with the --target switch, or will I need to compile GCC, binutils, etc to do this?

Solution 1

As already said, those are not your only two options. I suggest trying this toolchain prepared by ARM engineers: GNU Tools for ARM Embedded Processors . It's specifically tailored for Cortex-M and Cortex-R cores, and it doesn't require registration to download it.

Solution 2

You can find an excellent series of tutorial style blog posts here, for example this one about bare metal programming for the M3.

Solution 3

CodeSourcery G++ supports a wide range of ARM processors including Cortex-M3. Its also free unless you need professional support.

Comments

[harvis]

You can try this if you are using linux. eluaproject.net/doc/v0.8/en_tc_cortex.html

[Bojangles]

Thanks. I wasn't aware it was free - thanks for the heads up!

[old_timer]

well there is a lite version, and you need to read the license agreement.

[old_timer]

llvm, though, cross compiles out of the box, you can use -march=arm to build for arm. Depends on what you are doing though

[old_timer]

the cortex-m3 is thumb/thumb2 only so be careful to specify the processor type when compiling (with gcc), otherwise it will default to arm instructions. and my comment about llvm -march=arm will build arm it might be -march=thumb to build for thumb.

[Admin]

And make sure you do not specify -mthumb-interwork when you compile for Cortex-M, otherwise you will get ARM32 code in there, which your MCU will not understand, thus your program will crash.

[David Grayson]

I find the new download page for this toolchain to be much easier to use, and it gives me more peace of mind knowing it comes from arm.com: developer.arm.com/open-source/gnu-toolchain/gnu-rm/downloads