ObjAsm becomes self-aware in latest DDE update
Posted by Steve Revill Thu, 25 Feb 2021 22:27:00 GMT
The assembler tool, one of the cornerstones of the Desktop Development Environment (DDE), has taken on a life of its own in the latest update which was made available to eligible developers today. The main changes include:
- The addition of support for instructions from ARMv8.0 to the very latest ARMv8.6
- Support for the IEEE half-precision floating point instructions in the VFP instruction set
- A new data type for BFloat16
- More thorough rules checking around ‘IT’ blocks
- A number of bug fixes and improvements to warning and error text
- The table of known CPUs to target has been updated, right up to the Cortex-X1
- Extra built-in variables to allow conditional assembly for a given target
Artificial intelligence
One of the new extensions supported is the BFloat16 data type, intended to help develop fast and efficient neural networks on the Arm family, dubbed Brain floats.
Note that it might take a few years for some of these features to trickle down to computers running RISC OS – some of the very latest Cortex family aren’t even available in silicon yet! However, this work cements ObjAsm’s position as being the assembler with the broadest available support of the AArch32 family.
Extra brain fodder
Having sewn-up ObjAsm’s skull, other tools on the operating table include:
- DecAOF now disassembles the half precision/BFloat16 and new VFP instructions
- The linker can handle half-precision relocations
- Minor fixes to the C compiler
- ABC, the BASIC compiler, can generate service modules with more than one command
- Revised manuals covering all of the above changes
Becoming a registered developer
When you buy a copy of the DDE you’re also assigned a developer number which starts ‘DEV07’. This gets you access to occasional beta programmes, discounts off things like the RISC OS Style Guide and 12 months of inclusive updates. Rejoin at any time for a 50% discount by quoting your ‘DEV07’ number.
We also welcome thoughts for features you’d like to see in the Desktop Development Environment; get in touch.
Guys thanks a lot for the BFloat16!!!! :)))
Another very welcome update.
Is there Thumb2-Support ?
For now, it still only knows pre-UAL Thumb syntax, which means it’s limited to the 16-bit Thumb instructions. Did you have a particular use in mind? Thumb hasn’t historically been particularly appealing for use with RISC OS, since most software is still expected to run on older processors that lack it.
@Ben: I’ve been coding some sizecoding intros using Thumb-2 on Risc OS. Expect more releases soon. By now I’m doing that with the gnu assembler from the !GCC package. I’m okay with that but wondered if the DDE-Kit with ObjASM would be interesting or has benefits also.