GNU Arm Embedded Toolchain 4.8-2013-q4-major

Release notes for
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GNU Tools for ARM Embedded Processors 4.8
                               - Q4 2013
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This release includes the following items:
* Bare metal EABI pre-built binaries for running on a Windows host
* Bare metal EABI pre-built binaries for running on a Linux host
* Bare metal EABI pre-built binaries for running on a Mac OS X host
* Source code package (together with build scripts and instructions to setup
  build environment), composed of:
  * gcc : ARM/embedded-4_8-branch revision 205641
    http://gcc.gnu.org/svn/gcc/branches/ARM/embedded-4_8-branch/

  * binutils : 2.23 with mainline backports
    git://sourceware.org/git/binutils.git commit 8ea85793ab9a147f826a2d30ff612d6e77d02225

  * newlib : 2.0
    git://sourceware.org/git/newlib.git commit bddd1263dd154fdcc867459f2f2c784f81c8e3c5

  * gdb : 7.6 with mainline backports, without target sim support
    git://sourceware.org/git/gdb.git commit 7fc7df8816e69c7478d09c6f3447b83f28532711

  * cloog 0.18.0 :
    ftp://gcc.gnu.org/pub/gcc/infrastructure/cloog-0.18.0.tar.gz

  * expat 2.0.1 :
    http://jaist.dl.sourceforge.net/project/expat/expat/2.0.1/expat-2.0.1.tar.gz

  * gmp 4.3.2 : ftp://gcc.gnu.org/pub/gcc/infrastructure/gmp-4.3.2.tar.bz2

  * libelf 0.8.13 : http://www.mr511.de/software/libelf-0.8.13.tar.gz

  * libiconv 1.14 :
    http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/libiconv/libiconv-1.14.tar.gz

  * mpc 0.8.1 : ftp://gcc.gnu.org/pub/gcc/infrastructure/mpc-0.8.1.tar.gz

  * mpfr 2.4.2 : ftp://gcc.gnu.org/pub/gcc/infrastructure/mpfr-2.4.2.tar.bz2

  * isl 0.11.1 : ftp://gcc.gnu.org/pub/gcc/infrastructure/isl-0.11.1.tar.bz2

  * zlib 1.2.5 with makefile patch :
    http://sourceforge.net/projects/libpng/files/zlib/1.2.5/zlib-1.2.5.tar.bz2/download

  * newlib-nano 2.0 : Included in source package

  * gcc-plugins : Plugin source from gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc-patches

Supported hosts:
* Windows XP/7 32/64 bits (with installer and alternative zip package)
* Linux 32/64 bits
  - Ubuntu 8.x or later (tarball)
  - Ubuntu 10.04/12.04/13.04 (tarball and PPA)
  - RHEL 4/5 (tarball)
* Mac OS X 10.7.3 and newer 64 bits (tarball)

Supported target OS:
* Bare metal EABI only

Features:
* All GCC 4.8 features, plus latest mainline features
  - Cortex-R7 support
* Additional code size optimizations
  - Don't expand multiply instruction for Thumb-1.
  - Avoid unnecessary lr save instruction for Thumb-1.
* Newlib-nano: newlib branch optimized for code size
* Cortex-A profile multilib
* Link Time Optimization (LTO)
* A new compiler option -mslow-flash-data to minimize the literal load to
  boost performance for some armv7-m targets.
* A new compiler option -mpic-data-is-text-relative to enable/disable
  addressing data with PC relative.
* Avoid missing _sbrk issue when .specs is used.
* Support multiple RAM sessions in startup code.
* A GCC plugin to optimize Finite State Machine program.

Tests:
* Tested on a variety of Cortex-M0/M0+/M3/M4/A9 boards
* Tested on Qemu

Important bugs fixed in 4.8 2013q4 major release:
* Branch to symbol defined in linker script
  http://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=15302
* GDB is upgraded to 7.6 to better support dwarf-3 and later standard
  https://answers.launchpad.net/gcc-arm-embedded/+question/234131
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/gcc-arm-embedded/+bug/1248981
* ICE when use high register as PIC base register for thumb-1 target

Known Changes and Issues:
* Unlike the previous releases, this release O2 optimization level doesn't
  unroll loop. To tune the strategy to get better performance for your
  case, please refer to unrolling related parameters in associated gcc manual.
* The gcc regression test case pr42575.c now fails due to suboptimal code
  on 64-bit integer multiply caused by gcc new rtx cost model.
* This version of GCC still cannot handle volatile packed structure correctly.
  Please avoid such usage in source code.