Re: 80186 free C compiler

"John Wilkinson" <john.wilkinson@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:ff0yg393dw7q$.x6somhk77uvk$.dlg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
Hi,
I am new to all this but I am about to try my first embedded design using
an 80C186 processor.
Is there a free C compiler available?
Am I correct in thinking gcc can't target the 80186 processor?

I understand I need a locator as well?
Again is there a free one?

Where can I get startup code? The book I have is Programming Embedded
Systems by Michael Barr, and he says that you could use libgloss, but I
can't find it anywhere on the internet!!

My first choice -- because I have it -- is the ancient Borland C++ v3.1 which you can probably find on eBay for a song or two. I've used it in years past to create stand-alone programs that ran on an 80188 but it takes some custom startup code to get rid of the dependency on DOS. Second choice would be Microsoft C++ v1.5x with the same caveats. You might even be able to get by with the DJGPP MS-DOS compiler if you can limit the processor target to 8086/186. Again you'll have to write your own startup code.

As for startup code, decades ago the company I worked for bought a product called C_Thru_ROM which was a library of startup and simple CRTL-substitutions to enable writing embedded software for x86 processors with commercial (MS-DOS) compilers. It was rare then and I haven't seen any in the years since but you might find a copy. Also, the company that makes it -- http://www.datalight.com -- now makes a ROM-able MS-DOS emulator.

   Norm

.

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