Did anyone identify an Ada which targeted microcontrollers?

Did anyone identify an Ada which targeted microcontrollers?

[John M. Mills]

Hello --
In the recent thread concerning microcontrollers, I missed whether a viable
Ada or 'mini-Ada' cross-compiler was identified which targets 8-bit micro-
processors.  We are considering assembler or C to code an embedded processor
which will be a "smart controller" -- no O/S, some fixed-point or integer
arithmetic, parallel and possibly serial I/O.  Fixed activity cycle, probably
initiated by interrupt repeating the same activity on several different sets
of I/O addresses with only a few input variables.  We may decide for a simple
packetized control protocol.

This could be done with an i860 or i960 in the shade, but I would like to
consider one of the low-end 8-bitters.  Naturally I expect that GNAT could
or does support either of those types, as they are in the "supported" list
for GCC.

Since this was near the core of a recent thread, perhaps e-mail response
would be appropriate (so I don't interrupt the vital threads of C - Ada
mud slinging, or the eternal: "why do you think that's a microcontroller --
_this_ is a microcontroller!")  In fact, overloading of the recent "Ada
for microcontrollers" thread with this type flaming may have caused me to
miss the answer to my question.

I am interested in commercial or free distributions.  I would like to
consider Ada as a coding alternative.  We expect to replace a processor
card we built 10 years ago which uses 2902 bit-slice parts and home-brew
microcode, so even assembly language would be a great step forward for
maintainability!  Our preliminary code drafts suggest a simple uP could
now meet our speed requirement in assembler or C.  Other than looking at
80C51- and 65C11-scale processors, we can consider alternatives, if they
were supported by an attractive language and development environment.

Regards -- john mills --

-- 
John M. Mills, Senior Research Engineer   --   john.m.mills@gtri.gatech.edu
   Georgia Tech Research Institute, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA 30332-0834
        Phone contacts: 404.894.0151 (voice), 404.894.6258 (FAX)
            "Lies, Damned Lies, Statistics, and Simulations"

Re: Did anyone identify an Ada which targeted microcontrollers?

[Marin David Condic, 561.796.8997, M/S 731-93]

"John M. Mills" <jm59@PRISM.GATECH.EDU> writes:
>In the recent thread concerning microcontrollers, I missed whether a viable
>Ada or 'mini-Ada' cross-compiler was identified which targets 8-bit micro-
>processors.  We are considering assembler or C to code an embedded processor
<snip>

    I received a number of e-mails with suggestions for embedded
    controllers from my original post, but never heard of anything
    that quite fit my criteria. (Especially, the Ada95 part.) My
    criteria are somewhat different from yours (I could use a few more
    than 8 bits) but I think that until you get to the
    "IBM-PC-with-windows-SBC" level (not what *I* would call an
    embedded controller - just to bait a few flames ;-) you aren't
    going to be able to target Ada to the application.

    I personally think there might be some money to be made by an Ada
    vendor who put together an "embedded controller" kit that included
    some reasonably small-yet-powerful-yet-cheap SBC that connected to
    a PC through a UART and connected cleanly to their compilation
    environment. I'd do the job myself if I had the compilation
    environment (and the time! :-)

    If you hear of anything, let me know. I'm still out there looking.

    MDC

Marin David Condic, Senior Computer Engineer    ATT:        561.796.8997
Pratt & Whitney, GESP                           Fax:        561.796.4669
West Palm Beach, FL                             Internet:   CONDICMA@PWFL.COM
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Re: Did anyone identify an Ada which targeted microcontrollers?

[Robert Dewar]

John Mills said

<<This could be done with an i860 or i960 in the shade, but I would like to
consider one of the low-end 8-bitters.  Naturally I expect that GNAT could
or does support either of those types, as they are in the "supported" list
for GCC.>>

There is no GNAT port for the i860 as far as we know, but as John notes,
one could certainly be done if there was a demand.

There is a partial port at least of GNAT for the i960. We have one large
customer using the i960 with VxWorks successfully. This however, is
definitely not an off-the-shelf product at this stage. Contact sales@gnat.com
if you want more information.

Robert Dewar
Ada Core Technologies