I’m wondering if there is a way to write MIPS assembly language file (just really simple test file) with a .s extension like is used with the PCSpim simulator and then have it actually compile the code and produce a file with the hex output as if I were to load it onto an actual MIPS chip.
Can SPIM or some other similar software do this? Can you explain a little more about the assembly process from MIPS assembly to the actual executable that the microcontroller uses?
Thanks
EDIT: So I’m running on ubuntu linux with gcc installed. I have a mips file mipsTest.s that is the following
.text
add $7, $0, $0
Now at the command line I type
gcc -c -o mipsy.o mipsTest.s
And the error that I get says
mipsTest.s: Assembler messages:
mipsTest.s:2: Error: at most 2 immediate operands are allowed.
So to me that means that the assembler is not reading the mips language, it is probably assuming my assembly file is in x86? How do I get a cross compiler setup so that gcc will recognize the MIPS assembly language instead of x86? (or whatever its interpreting my mipsTest.s file as right now) Thanks!
EDIT 2: So I googled “mips cross-assembler” and found a few things. The one that seemed most promising was the umps cross-assembler project on sourceforge. So I downloaded umps2.0 which is supposed to be a stable version. I untarballed it any ran the “./configure” as instructed in the readme file. Then my console gave me the following error which prevents me from running the make command…
jonathan@mini-heiretic:~/Documents/cross-compiler/umps-2.0$ ./configure
checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking target system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking for gcc... gcc
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking for suffix of executables...
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /bin/grep
checking for egrep... /bin/grep -E
checking for ANSI C header files... yes
checking for sys/types.h... yes
checking for sys/stat.h... yes
checking for stdlib.h... yes
checking for string.h... yes
checking for memory.h... yes
checking for strings.h... yes
checking for inttypes.h... yes
checking for stdint.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... yes
checking whether byte ordering is bigendian... no
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p
checking for gawk... gawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking for style of include used by make... GNU
checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
checking for g++... g++
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... yes
checking whether g++ accepts -g... yes
checking dependency style of g++... gcc3
checking for gcc... (cached) gcc
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... (cached) yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... (cached) yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... (cached) none needed
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
checking whether ln -s works... yes
checking how to print strings... printf
checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /bin/sed
checking for fgrep... /bin/grep -F
checking for ld used by gcc... /usr/bin/ld
checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes
checking for BSD- or MS-compatible name lister (nm)... /usr/bin/nm -B
checking the name lister (/usr/bin/nm -B) interface... BSD nm
checking the maximum length of command line arguments... 1572864
checking whether the shell understands some XSI constructs... yes
checking whether the shell understands "+="... yes
checking how to convert i686-pc-linux-gnu file names to i686-pc-linux-gnu format... func_convert_file_noop
checking how to convert i686-pc-linux-gnu file names to toolchain format... func_convert_file_noop
checking for /usr/bin/ld option to reload object files... -r
checking for objdump... objdump
checking how to recognize dependent libraries... pass_all
checking for dlltool... no
checking how to associate runtime and link libraries... printf %s\n
checking for ar... ar
checking for archiver @FILE support... @
checking for strip... strip
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking command to parse /usr/bin/nm -B output from gcc object... ok
checking for sysroot... no
checking for mt... mt
checking if mt is a manifest tool... no
checking for dlfcn.h... yes
checking for objdir... .libs
checking if gcc supports -fno-rtti -fno-exceptions... no
checking for gcc option to produce PIC... -fPIC -DPIC
checking if gcc PIC flag -fPIC -DPIC works... yes
checking if gcc static flag -static works... yes
checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... yes
checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... (cached) yes
checking whether the gcc linker (/usr/bin/ld) supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether -lc should be explicitly linked in... no
checking dynamic linker characteristics... GNU/Linux ld.so
checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
checking whether stripping libraries is possible... yes
checking if libtool supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build static libraries... yes
checking how to run the C++ preprocessor... g++ -E
checking for ld used by g++... /usr/bin/ld
checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes
checking whether the g++ linker (/usr/bin/ld) supports shared libraries... yes
checking for g++ option to produce PIC... -fPIC -DPIC
checking if g++ PIC flag -fPIC -DPIC works... yes
checking if g++ static flag -static works... yes
checking if g++ supports -c -o file.o... yes
checking if g++ supports -c -o file.o... (cached) yes
checking whether the g++ linker (/usr/bin/ld) supports shared libraries... yes
checking dynamic linker characteristics... (cached) GNU/Linux ld.so
checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
checking for ld used by gcc... (cached) /usr/bin/ld
checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld) is GNU ld... (cached) yes
checking for elf_version in -lelf... no
configure: error: *** Libelf not found. Specify a different path or install it. --help for info.
Are there any better options I should try or can anyone provide input on my error?
EDIT 3: After downloading Libelf, I can now get a little further in the configure script for umps. Here is the output starting from the newly successful elf_version line
checking for elf_version in -lelf... yes
checking for dlopen in -ldl... yes
checking for pkg-config... /usr/bin/pkg-config
checking pkg-config is at least version 0.9.0... yes
checking for SIGCPP... no
configure: error: Package requirements (sigc++-2.0) were not met:
No package 'sigc++-2.0' found
Consider adjusting the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable if you
installed software in a non-standard prefix.
Alternatively, you may set the environment variables SIGCPP_CFLAGS
and SIGCPP_LIBS to avoid the need to call pkg-config.
See the pkg-config man page for more details.
So I ran a quick sudo apt-get install sigc++-2.0 but couldn’t find the package… suggestions?
EDIT 4: Here’s the error I get when I try to use the Makefile
jonathan@mini-heiretic:~/Documents/cross-compiler/dwelch67-pic32_samples-f34fb22/blinker01$ make
mips-sde-elf-as -EL -G0 --warn --fatal-warnings blinker01.s -o blinker01.o
make: mips-sde-elf-as: Command not found
make: *** [blinker01.o] Error 127
You can use gcc, among others, to cross-compile or assemble MIPS assembly language source. As far as the process, there is a one-to-one mapping between assembly language mnemonics and machine instructions. The assembler just does the translation for you.
Edit: You’re not using a cross-assembler, you’re using the system’s own gcc. That toolchain is presumably targeting Intel processors, which don’t have a 3-operand
addinstruction. You need to use a cross-assembler for MIPS. Download and install a binary one, or build a toolchain yourself. Then you’ll have a cross compiler (maybe called mips-gcc or something like that) that you can use to assemble your MIPS source files.