Status of the Xtensa Port

Xtensa Support in OpenSource Software

Applications are mostly written processor-independent and don't require modifications to support a new processor architectur. Development tools that generate architecture specific code, however, must be ported to the new architecture. Support for the Xtensa architecture has already been integrated to most OpenSource development tools. More information can be found in the following sections.

Conventions

Patches for tools and applications to support additional features or for bug-fixes are located under the in http://www.linux-xtensa.org/pub/patches. The patches follow the following naming convention:

name-version-pseqno-descriptive-text.patch

• name: the name of the tool or application,
• version: the version number,
• seqno: a sequential patch number,
• descriptive-text': short description of the patch.

For example: gcc-4.1.1-p3-add-tls-support-for-xtensa.patch. The name describes a patch for the compiler gcc version 4.1.1. It is the third patch of a series of patches and needs to be applied after p1 and p2 have been applied. The description reveals that this patch adds TLS (Thread Local Storage) support for the Xtensa architecture.

The patches for a particular package and version must be applied sequentially in order of the incremental patch number.

Development Tools

Compiler and Binutils

The GNU compiler (GCC) and binutils (assembler, linker, etc.) are maintained in the OpenSource source and can be downloaded from the respective locations. Support for Native Posix Thread Library (NTPL) and Thread Local Storage (TLS), however, hasn't been submitted to the latest versions.

Operating System

Linux

Support for Xtensa has been integrated into the Linux kernel in 2.6.13. For the latest version, see also Internet_Resources

Applications

All applications should just compile and run on Xtensa unless they require specific processor features.