3 * New command line option -mhint.b=[ok|warning|error] for IA64 targets.
5 * New command line option -munwind-check=[warning|error] for IA64
8 * The IA64 port now uses automatic dependency violation removal as its default
11 * Port to MAXQ processor contributed by HCL Tech.
13 * Added support for generating unwind tables for ARM ELF targets.
15 * Add a -g command line option to generate debug information in the target's
16 preferred debug format.
18 * Support for the crx-elf target added.
20 * Support for the sh-symbianelf target added.
22 * Added a pseudo-op (.secrel32) to generate 32 bit section relative relocations
23 on pe[i]-i386; required for this target's DWARF 2 support.
25 * Support for Motorola MCF521x/5249/547x/548x added.
27 * Support for ColdFire EMAC instructions added and Motorola syntax for MAC/EMAC
30 * New command line option -mno-shared for MIPS ELF targets.
32 * New command line option --alternate and pseudo-ops .altmacro and .noaltmacro
33 added to enter (and leave) alternate macro syntax mode.
37 * The MIPS -membedded-pic option (Embedded-PIC code generation) is
38 deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
40 * Added PIC m32r Linux (ELF) and support to M32R assembler.
42 * Added support for ARM V6.
44 * Added support for sh4a and variants.
46 * Support for Renesas M32R2 added.
48 * Limited support for Mapping Symbols as specified in the ARM ELF
49 specification has been added to the arm assembler.
51 * On ARM architectures, added a new gas directive ".unreq" that undoes
52 definitions created by ".req".
54 * Support for Motorola ColdFire MCF528x added.
56 * Added --gstabs+ switch to enable the generation of STABS debug format
57 information with GNU extensions.
59 * Added support for MIPS64 Release 2.
61 * Added support for v850e1.
63 * Added -n switch for x86 assembler. By default, x86 GAS replaces
64 multiple nop instructions used for alignment within code sections
65 with multi-byte nop instructions such as leal 0(%esi,1),%esi. This
66 switch disables the optimization.
68 * Removed -n option from MIPS assembler. It was not useful, and confused the
69 existing -non_shared option.
73 * Added support for MIPS32 Release 2.
75 * Added support for Xtensa architecture.
77 * Support for Intel's iWMMXt processor (an ARM variant) added.
79 * An assembler test generator has been contributed and an example file that
80 uses it (gas/testsuite/gas/all/test-gen.c and test-exmaple.c).
82 * Support for SH2E added.
84 * GASP has now been removed.
86 * Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C4x and TMS320C3x series of
87 DSP's contributed by Michael Hayes and Svein E. Seldal.
89 * Support for the Ubicom IP2xxx microcontroller added.
93 * Support for the Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat. Models for FR400
96 * Support for DLX processor added.
98 * GASP has now been deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Use
99 the macro facilities in GAS instead.
101 * GASP now correctly parses floating point numbers. Unless the base is
102 explicitly specified, they are interpreted as decimal numbers regardless of
103 the currently specified base.
107 * Support for Don Knuth's MMIX, by Hans-Peter Nilsson.
109 * Support for the OpenRISC 32-bit embedded processor by OpenCores.
111 * The ARM assembler now accepts -march=..., -mcpu=... and -mfpu=... for
112 specifying the target instruction set. The old method of specifying the
113 target processor has been deprecated, but is still accepted for
116 * Support for the VFP floating-point instruction set has been added to
119 * New psuedo op: .incbin to include a set of binary data at a given point
120 in the assembly. Contributed by Anders Norlander.
122 * The MIPS assembler now accepts -march/-mtune. -mcpu has been deprecated
123 but still works for compatability.
125 * The MIPS assembler no longer issues a warning by default when it
126 generates a nop instruction from a macro. The new command line option
127 -n will turn on the warning.
131 * Support for PDP-11 and 2.11BSD a.out format, by Lars Brinkhoff.
133 * x86 gas now supports the full Pentium4 instruction set.
135 * Support for AMD x86-64 architecture, by Jan Hubicka, SuSE Labs.
137 * Support for Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12.
139 * Support for Texas Instruments TMS320C54x (tic54x).
143 * Support for i860, by Jason Eckhardt.
145 * Support for CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX series).
147 * x86 gas has a new .arch pseudo op to specify the target CPU architecture.
149 * x86 gas -q command line option quietens warnings about register size changes
150 due to suffix, indirect jmp/call without `*', stand-alone prefixes, and
151 translating various deprecated floating point instructions.
155 * Support for the ARM msr instruction was changed to only allow an immediate
156 operand when altering the flags field.
158 * Support for ATMEL AVR.
160 * Support for IBM 370 ELF. Somewhat experimental.
162 * Support for numbers with suffixes.
164 * Added support for breaking to the end of repeat loops.
166 * Added support for parallel instruction syntax (DOUBLEBAR_PARALLEL).
168 * New .elseif pseudo-op added.
170 * New --fatal-warnings option.
172 * picoJava architecture support added.
174 * Motorola MCore 210 processor support added.
176 * A new pseudo-op .intel_syntax has been implemented to allow gas to parse i386
177 assembly programs with intel syntax.
179 * New pseudo-ops .func,.endfunc to aid in debugging user-written assembler code.
181 * Added -gdwarf2 option to generate DWARF 2 debugging information.
183 * Full 16-bit mode support for i386.
185 * Greatly improved instruction operand checking for i386. This change will
186 produce errors or warnings on incorrect assembly code that previous versions
187 of gas accepted. If you get unexpected messages from code that worked with
188 older versions of gas, please double check the code before reporting a bug.
190 * Weak symbol support added for COFF targets.
192 * Mitsubishi D30V support added.
194 * Texas Instruments c80 (tms320c80) support added.
196 * i960 ELF support added.
198 * ARM ELF support added.
202 * Texas Instruments c30 (tms320c30) support added.
204 * The assembler now optimizes the exception frame information generated by egcs
205 and gcc 2.8. The new --traditional-format option disables this optimization.
207 * Added --gstabs option to generate stabs debugging information.
209 * The -a option takes a new suboption, m (e.g., -alm) to expand macros in a
212 * Added -MD option to print dependencies.
216 * BeOS support added.
218 * MIPS16 support added.
220 * Motorola ColdFire 5200 support added (configure for m68k and use -m5200).
222 * Alpha/VMS support added.
224 * m68k options --base-size-default-16, --base-size-default-32,
225 --disp-size-default-16, and --disp-size-default-32 added.
227 * The alignment directives now take an optional third argument, which is the
228 maximum number of bytes to skip. If doing the alignment would require
229 skipping more than the given number of bytes, the alignment is not done at
232 * The ELF assembler has a new pseudo-op, .symver, used for symbol versioning.
234 * The -a option takes a new suboption, c (e.g., -alc), to skip false
235 conditionals in listings.
237 * Added new pseudo-op, .equiv; it's like .equ, except that it is an error if
238 the symbol is already defined.
242 * The PowerPC assembler now allows the use of symbolic register names (r0,
243 etc.) if -mregnames is used. Symbolic names preceded by a '%' (%r0, etc.)
244 can be used any time. PowerPC 860 move to/from SPR instructions have been
247 * Alpha Linux (ELF) support added.
249 * PowerPC ELF support added.
251 * m68k Linux (ELF) support added.
253 * i960 Hx/Jx support added.
255 * i386/PowerPC gnu-win32 support added.
257 * SCO ELF support added. For OpenServer 5 targets (i386-unknown-sco3.2v5) the
258 default is to build COFF-only support. To get a set of tools that generate
259 ELF (they'll understand both COFF and ELF), you must configure with
260 target=i386-unknown-sco3.2v5elf.
262 * m88k-motorola-sysv3* support added.
266 * Gas now directly supports macros, without requiring GASP.
268 * Gas now has an MRI assembler compatibility mode. Use -M or --mri to select
269 MRI mode. The pseudo-op ``.mri 1'' will switch into the MRI mode until the
270 ``.mri 0'' is seen; this can be convenient for inline assembler code.
272 * Added --defsym SYM=VALUE option.
274 * Added -mips4 support to MIPS assembler.
276 * Added PIC support to Solaris and SPARC SunOS 4 assembler.
280 * Converted this directory to use an autoconf-generated configure script.
282 * ARM support, from Richard Earnshaw.
284 * Updated VMS support, from Pat Rankin, including considerably improved
287 * Support for the control registers in the 68060.
289 * Handles (ignores) a new directive ".this_GCC_requires_the_GNU_assembler", to
290 provide for possible future gcc changes, for targets where gas provides some
291 features not available in the native assembler. If the native assembler is
292 used, it should become obvious pretty quickly what the problem is.
294 * Usage message is available with "--help".
296 * The GNU Assembler Preprocessor (gasp) is included. (Actually, it was in 2.3
297 also, but didn't get into the NEWS file.)
299 * Weak symbol support for a.out.
301 * A bug in the listing code which could cause an infinite loop has been fixed.
302 Bugs in listings when generating a COFF object file have also been fixed.
304 * Initial i386-svr4 PIC implementation from Eric Youngdale, based on code by
307 * Improved Alpha support. Immediate constants can have a much larger range
308 now. Support for the 21164 has been contributed by Digital.
310 * Updated ns32k (pc532-mach, netbsd532) support from Ian Dall.
314 * Mach i386 support, by David Mackenzie and Ken Raeburn.
316 * RS/6000 and PowerPC support by Ian Taylor.
318 * VMS command scripts (make-gas.com, config-gas.com) have been worked on a bit,
319 based on mail received from various people. The `-h#' option should work
322 * HP-PA work, by Jeff Law. Note, for the PA, gas-2.3 has been designed to work
323 with gdb-4.12 and gcc-2.6. As gcc-2.6 has not been released yet, a special
324 version of gcc-2.5.8 has been patched to work with gas-2.3. You can retrieve
325 this special version of gcc-2.5.8 via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu
326 in the "dist" directory.
328 * Vax support in gas fixed for BSD, so it builds and seems to run a couple
329 simple tests okay. I haven't put it through extensive testing. (GNU make is
330 currently required for BSD 4.3 builds.)
332 * Support for the DEC Alpha, running OSF/1 (ECOFF format). The gas support is
333 based on code donated by CMU, which used an a.out-based format. I'm afraid
334 the alpha-a.out support is pretty badly mangled, and much of it removed;
335 making it work will require rewriting it as BFD support for the format anyways.
339 * The test suites have been fixed up a bit, so that they should work with a
340 couple different versions of expect and dejagnu.
342 * Symbols' values are now handled internally as expressions, permitting more
343 flexibility in evaluating them in some cases. Some details of relocation
344 handling have also changed, and simple constant pool management has been
345 added, to make the Alpha port easier.
347 * New option "--statistics" for printing out program run times. This is
348 intended to be used with the gcc "-Q" option, which prints out times spent in
349 various phases of compilation. (You should be able to get all of them
350 printed out with "gcc -Q -Wa,--statistics", I think.)
354 * RS/6000 AIX and MIPS SGI Irix 5 support has been added.
356 * Configurations that are still in development (and therefore are convenient to
357 have listed in configure.in) still get rejected without a minor change to
358 gas/Makefile.in, so people not doing development work shouldn't get the
359 impression that support for such configurations is actually believed to be
362 * The program name (usually "as") is printed when a fatal error message is
363 displayed. This should prevent some confusion about the source of occasional
364 messages about "internal errors".
366 * ELF support is falling into place. Support for the 386 should be working.
367 Support for SPARC Solaris is in. HPPA support from Utah is being integrated.
369 * Symbol values are maintained as expressions instead of being immediately
370 boiled down to add-symbol, sub-symbol, and constant. This permits slightly
371 more complex calculations involving symbols whose values are not alreadey
374 * DBX-style debugging info ("stabs") is now supported for COFF formats.
375 If any stabs directives are seen in the source, GAS will create two new
376 sections: a ".stab" and a ".stabstr" section. The format of the .stab
377 section is nearly identical to the a.out symbol format, and .stabstr is
378 its string table. For this to be useful, you must have configured GCC
379 to generate stabs (by defining DBX_DEBUGGING_INFO), and must have a GDB
380 that can use the stab sections (4.11 or later).
382 * LynxOS, on i386 and m68k platforms, is now supported. SPARC LynxOS
383 support is in progress.
387 * Several small fixes for i386-aix (PS/2) support from Minh Tran-Le have been
388 incorporated, but not well tested yet.
390 * Altered the opcode table split for m68k; it should require less VM to compile
393 * Some minor adjustments to add (Convergent Technologies') Miniframe support,
394 suggested by Ronald Cole.
396 * HPPA support (running OSF only, not HPUX) has been contributed by Utah. This
397 includes improved ELF support, which I've started adapting for SPARC Solaris
398 2.x. Integration isn't completely, so it probably won't work.
400 * HP9000/300 support, donated by HP, has been merged in.
402 * Ian Taylor has finished the MIPS ECOFF (Ultrix, Irix) support.
404 * Better error messages for unsupported configurations (e.g., hppa-hpux).
406 * Test suite framework is starting to become reasonable.
412 * Some more merging of BFD and ELF code, but ELF still doesn't work.
416 * BFD merge is partly done. Adventurous souls may try giving configure the
417 "--with-bfd-assembler" option. Currently, ELF format requires it, a.out
418 format accepts it; SPARC CPU accepts it. It's the default only for OS "elf"
419 or "solaris". (ELF isn't really supported yet. It needs work. I've got
420 some code from Utah for HP-PA ELF, and from DG for m88k ELF, but they're not
423 * The 68K opcode table has been split in half. It should now compile under gcc
424 without consuming ridiculous amounts of memory.
426 * A couple data structures have been reduced in size. This should result in
427 saving a little bit of space at runtime.
429 * Support for MIPS, from OSF and Ralph Campbell, has been merged in. The OSF
430 code provided ROSE format support, which I haven't merged in yet. (I can
431 make it available, if anyone wants to try it out.) Ralph's code, for BSD
432 4.4, supports a.out format. We don't have ECOFF support in just yet; it's
435 * Support for the Hitachi H8/500 has been added.
437 * VMS host and target support should be working now, thanks chiefly to Eric
442 * For m68k, support for more processors has been added: 68040, CPU32, 68851.
444 * For i386, .align is now power-of-two; was number-of-bytes.
446 * For m68k, "%" is now accepted before register names. For COFF format, which
447 doesn't use underscore prefixes for C labels, it is required, so variable "a0"
448 can be distinguished from the register.
450 * Last public release was 1.38. Lots of configuration changes since then, lots
451 of new CPUs and formats, lots of bugs fixed.