Ada Embeded System Alternatives

Ada Embeded System Alternatives

[Paul Robinson]

I've been assigned the task to provide alternatives and solutions to
bringing legacy Ada 83 code to a new embedded system.

The new system's hardware, OS and language of choice is fixed (Mercury
Computer SBC PPCs, MC/OS, and C).  The use of C is not required,
however, if a justifiable alternative is presented.

The options I see are:
1) Port the code from Ada to C
2) Find Ada compilier for  MC/OS PPCs

Translating to C gives better tools and vendor support.  Using Ada
gives more robust code and eliminates translation errors.

Has someone pursued any options similar to these on a project before? 
If so, what did you do, how did you do it, and how was the outcome?
  
Thanks,
pauL
-
Software Engineer
Northrop Grumman

Re: Ada Embeded System Alternatives

[Larry Kilgallen]

In article <d222b012.0306261255.2fe6c962@posting.google.com>, paulrobinson@mac.com (Paul Robinson) writes:
> I've been assigned the task to provide alternatives and solutions to
> bringing legacy Ada 83 code to a new embedded system.
> 
> The new system's hardware, OS and language of choice is fixed (Mercury
> Computer SBC PPCs, MC/OS, and C).  The use of C is not required,
> however, if a justifiable alternative is presented.
> 
> The options I see are:
> 1) Port the code from Ada to C
> 2) Find Ada compilier for  MC/OS PPCs
> 
> Translating to C gives better tools and vendor support.  Using Ada
> gives more robust code and eliminates translation errors.

Sofcheck (www.sofcheck.com) offers their AdaMagic compiler as a front
end that emits ANSI C code.  That would let you continue to program in
Ada and use the provided C compiler as a back end.

Re: Ada Embeded System Alternatives

[CBFalconer]

Paul Robinson wrote:
> 
> I've been assigned the task to provide alternatives and solutions
> to bringing legacy Ada 83 code to a new embedded system.
> 
> The new system's hardware, OS and language of choice is fixed
> (Mercury Computer SBC PPCs, MC/OS, and C).  The use of C is not
> required, however, if a justifiable alternative is presented.
> 
> The options I see are:
> 1) Port the code from Ada to C
> 2) Find Ada compilier for  MC/OS PPCs
> 
> Translating to C gives better tools and vendor support.  Using
> Ada gives more robust code and eliminates translation errors.
> 
> Has someone pursued any options similar to these on a project
> before? If so, what did you do, how did you do it, and how was
> the outcome?

Ada 95 is supposed to be completely downward compatible to Ada
83.  There is a gnu implementation of Ada 95 (GNAT) which should
be available on any system to which gcc has been ported.  So I
think your search should involve no more than finding a port of a
recent gcc.

-- 
Chuck F (cbfalconer@yahoo.com) (cbfalconer@worldnet.att.net)
   Available for consulting/temporary embedded and systems.
   <http://cbfalconer.home.att.net>  USE worldnet address!

Re: Ada Embeded System Alternatives

[Robert I. Eachus]

Paul Robinson wrote:
> I've been assigned the task to provide alternatives and solutions to
> bringing legacy Ada 83 code to a new embedded system.
> 
> The new system's hardware, OS and language of choice is fixed (Mercury
> Computer SBC PPCs, MC/OS, and C).  The use of C is not required,
> however, if a justifiable alternative is presented.

As I remember Mercury supplies the gcc compiler for their systems. So 
with very little effort you could port GNAT.  But I don't recommend 
that.  If you want to use the Green Hills tool suite, why not do that:

To quote from a Green Hills press release at Mercury Computer's site:

The new Green Hills compiler accepts C, C++, EC++, and Ada95 source 
code, and generates optimized object code for over 20 models of PowerPC 
ISA-based processors, including Motorola�s 603e, 850/860, 8240/8245, 
8250/8260, the newly announced 8540 and 8560, 740/745, 750/755, 
7400/7410, 7440/7445, 7450/7455, and IBM�s 403, 450 and 455. 
Optimizations are both global and target specific.

And:

The C/C++/EC++/Ada95 compiler is part of the MULTI� Integrated 
Development Environment (IDE), which provides all the development tools 
needed for embedded applications. The complete MULTI IDE, with new C/C++ 
compiler and target connection hardware, is available immediately at a 
price of $5,900 per development seat for a PC node-locked license.

Translation, by tomorrow you should be able to throw the existing Ada 
code at the Green Hills compiler and see if there are any third party 
packages missing...  (From experience, you will probably have to create 
generic instantiations of some standard Ada 95 numerics packages.)  That 
is assuming that you intend to use the Green Hills compiler and the 
MULTI 2000 IDE.

Re: Ada Embeded System Alternatives

[John McCabe]

On Thu, 26 Jun 2003 22:04:42 GMT, CBFalconer <cbfalconer@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>Ada 95 is supposed to be completely downward compatible to Ada
>83.

Oh no it isn't :-)

See http://archive.adaic.com/docs/compat-guide/compat-guide6-0.txt.

This tells you where your Ada83 code (other than that which uses
third-party libraries) may be incompatible with Ada95. Fortunately
there aren't many cases but being pedantic about it it isn't
completely downward compatible.


Best Regards
John McCabe

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