Re: [Caml-list] PowerPC 405

[Gregory Bellier <gregory.bellier@gmail.com>]

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Thank you Basile and Xavier, you were very helpful. That's nice of you.
Basile, I'm sorry but I'm not sure I can talk freely about what we're about
to do. Sorry, company policy :(

Anyway, thanks again and I'll write back when I'll have other questions.

Gregory BELLIER.


2009/3/27 Xavier Leroy <Xavier.Leroy@inria.fr>

> Just to complement Basile's excellent answers:
>
> > Do you know if it is possible to compile caml code on a PowerPC 405
> > from the Vertex 4 family ?
> > We'd like to put this processor in a FPGA.  On the Caml's website,
> > it is written "PowerPC" but is it only for Macintosch ?
>
> Not just Macintosh: PowerPC/Linux is also supported and works very
> well.
>
> > Yes, it will run Linux. It will have the uclibC or even the lib C.
>
> Then you're in good shape.  I would expect a basic OCaml system to
> work with uclibC, although a number of external libraries might not.
> With GNU libC, everything will work but watch out for code size:
> glibc is big!
>
> > The best case is to run native code for better performance. We'd
> > like to cross-compile for the PowerPC.
>
> Setting up OCaml as a cross-compiler is a bit of a challenge at the
> moment.  As a prerequisite, you'll need a complete cross-compilation
> environment for C: cross-compiler, cross-binutils, libraries and
> header files for your target.  It sounds obvious but in my experience
> that's quite hard to get right.  Then, there is a bit of configuration
> magic to be done on the OCaml side.  Write back for help if you're
> going to follow this way.
>
> A perhaps simpler alternative would be to compile on a bigger
> PowerPC/Linux platform.  An old Mac would be handy for this, but you
> can also use a Sony Playstation 3 (if you happen to have one around
> for, ahem, R&D purposes) after installing YellowDog Linux on it.
>
> - Xavier "doing lots of R&D with my PS3" Leroy
>
>

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