CELF Project Proposal/Add pcc support for Linux kernel


 * Summary : Add pcc support for Linux kernel


 * Proposer : Anders Magnussen

Description
Overview: Pcc is a small and simple compiler, yet can produce reasonable good code in comparison with gcc, even if it runs 5-10 times faster. Pcc supports around a dozen architectures more or less, even though the main focus these days has been i386 and amd64.

The compilation speed is a relevant factor when doing development, especially when compiling parts of large projects together, which is quite common on embedded systems.

The proposal has two parts:

First is to ensure that pcc produces correct code for the specialties inside the linux kernel that uses gcc extensions. This is focused mainly towards the i386 platform which is one of the most used embedded archs today.

The second is to add support for constant propagation and strength reduction, which is something that the Linux kernel benefit much from, especially the first item.

Related work
Pcc website: http://pcc.ludd.ltu.se


 * Scope : Each one of the above items should take about 2 weeks to implement and test.