From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,a3ca574fc2007430 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 115aec,f41f1f25333fa601 X-Google-Attributes: gid115aec,public From: ok@goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au (Richard A. O'Keefe) Subject: Re: Ada and Automotive Industry Date: 1996/11/19 Message-ID: <56rfjm$pct$1@goanna.cs.rmit.edu.au>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 197379697 references: <55ea3g$m1j@newsbf02.news.aol.com> <3280DA96.15FB@hso.link.com> <1996Nov6.210957.3070@ole.cdac.com> <5683sk$bsc@news.ccit.arizona.edu> organization: Comp Sci, RMIT, Melbourne, Australia newsgroups: comp.lang.ada,comp.realtime nntp-posting-user: ok Date: 1996-11-19T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: ken@nrtt.demon.co.uk (Ken Tindell) writes: >The automotive industry makes extensive use of 8-bit devices, >and this is going to continue for some years. I have seen a reference manual for the chip used in one brand of smart cards. It was basically an 8051 with a bit more (E-PROM) memory. I was told that the plastic card + bonding to it cost more than the chip. >I happen to agree with Robert Dewar that there would be no market >for an Ada compiler for 8-bit devices. The code it generated wouldn't >fit in the available RAM and ROM, it would be too slow, and no-one would >buy it. It has already been explained in this newsgroup that something stripped down to fit the limitations of the environment (smart card, &c) could still be called Ada. It has also been explained that there is a lot of neat stuff in Ada that would be useful. I don't see any reason at all why an APPROPRIATE Ada subset could not be cross compiled to efficient 8-bit code. I can also think of excellent reasons why people would want to buy it. The 8051 is a _weird_ beast with bit addressing for part of its address space but not the rest. There used to be a half-serious joke about the Data-Comm Processor inside the B6700s, that it had been designed by a lunatic. It did the job, but _nobody_ wrote code by hand for it, we used NDL. The 8051 looks even crazier. If I had to write code for an 8051, I would certainly want to prototype the thing in Ada. -- Mixed Member Proportional---a *great* way to vote! Richard A. O'Keefe; http://www.cs.rmit.edu.au/%7Eok; RMIT Comp.Sci.