Return-Path: smlieu Return-Path: Received: by cygnus.com (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA25459; Thu, 20 May 93 18:39:05 PDT Date: Thu, 20 May 93 18:39:05 PDT From: smlieu (Sun Ming Lieu) Message-Id: <9305210139.AA25459@cygnus.com> To: engnews-distrib Subject: Inside Cygnus Engineering - May 1993 Reply-To: smlieu@cygnus.com Organization: Cygnus Support, Mountain View CA; Phone +1 415 903 1400 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Vol 2 No 5 INSIDE CYGNUS ENGINEERING May 1993 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Inside Cygnus Engineering (ICE) is published monthly for customers of Cygnus Support. Our objective is to provide a relevant but informal summary of news and ongoing activities. Please send all comments, suggestions, and subscription requests to engnews@cygnus.com. PRODUCTS AND RELEASES --------------------- 1. New Pricing for C Development Tools Support on SPARC Effective immediately, we have a new pricing for "single" annual support contracts for our native SPARC (Solaris and SunOS) C development tools. 2-user `single' license: $1400 additional users beyond 2: $500/user This is applicable to renewals as well as new customers. You can buy support for SunOS and change over to Solaris free of charge on any calendar quarter boundary (Jan 1, Mar 1, Jul 1, or Oct 1). Additionally, we also offer "overlap" support on a per quarter basis at the price of $350/quarter for those customers that prefer a more gradual transition. Paying this additional fee provides you with both SunOS and Solaris releases. Each user receives support for SunOS and/or Solaris. Without the fee, you receive the release for a single OS (either SunOS or Solaris), and all of your users must be on that same OS. With this new pricing, Cygnus's compilers are not only more portable and functional that SunPro's, but also less expensive for more than a single user. For example: Number of Users 1 2 5 10 25 100 ----------------------------------------------------------------- SunPro: No support 995 995 950 750 680 600 1 year support 1355 1355 1310 1110 1040 960 2 year support 1835 1835 1790 1590 1520 1440 Cygnus: No support 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 year support 1400 700 580 540 516 504 2 year support 2800 1400 1160 1080 1032 1008 SunPro's advertised price is $995, which includes the software, but only three months of support. Our equivalent price is $0 -- the software is available without charge on the Catalyst CDware disc. When you include support for the other nine months, SunPro's price is $1355 per user for one to four users. Cygnus charges $1400/user for one user, or $700/user for two users, for the same service. Using the Cygnus tools, you can have as many people as you like use the software without violating the license or being locked out by a license manager. Also, Cygnus Support lets you purchase support for only the users who need it; SunPro requires that you buy support for every user at your site. Please note that this pricing structure is for C support only. Our existing prices for C++ support are still in effect. 2. GDB 4.9 We released GDB 4.9 to the net last week. It includes the following improvements. Some of these are not new to Cygnus customers, though they are available to the net for the first time. * Instruction-set simulation for Z8000 and H8 families * CHILL language debugging * New remote debug interfaces for embedded R3000 and i386 * New test suite for use with DejaGnu * Improved symbol name decoding (demangling) for C++ * Many bug fixes, particularly for the RS/6000 GDB now uses a standard interface to our GNU instruction-set simulator library. See the section on GNU simulators in this issue of ICE for more details. Debugging support for the CHILL language is included. CHILL, the CCITT High Level Language, is used throughout the world for embedded telecommunications applications, particularly central office switches. A GNU CHILL compiler is also in the works. Please contact Cygnus if you are interested in CHILL support. GDB-4.9 supports new cross debugging targets including the IDT MIPS R3000 (using the MIPS remote debugging protocol) and GO32, a 32-bit DOS execution environment from DJ Delorie. GO32 support requires a custom version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated into the GO32 memory extender. Many GNU tools and other programs for 32-bit computers have been ported to run in the GO32 environment. With GO32 target support, you can now debug these programs using GDB . Of course, it still takes two machines to do this since DOS can't run two programs -- the debugger and its target program -- at once. GDB releases now come with their own test suite, using the DejaGnu technology produced and released by Cygnus. This test suite permits you to verify how well GDB works on your platform, and makes the job of producing new ports and validating changes to GDB much easier. We encourage you to submit test cases in DejaGnu format in your bug reports, so that they can be easily integrated into the test suite to make sure that the bug does not return in future releases. 'Cfront' style symbol name decoding (demangling) has been renamed to 'ARM' style symbol name decoding to emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated Reference Manual (ARM), and is not necessarily compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite previous disclaimers, the original name generated too much confusion for users who promptly attempted to use GDB with AT&T cfront. 3. Q2 Progressive We are now beginning the final release process for the next progressive release, Q2, due out at the end of June. This progressive will include a number of new releases, including gdb 4.9 gas 2.1 binutils 2.2 g++ "reno 1.1" New target platforms supported for the first time include the Hitachi H8/300, the Zilog Z8001/2, and the MIPS R3000. We expect to mail update request cards to you in the first week of June. NEW AND ONGOING DEVELOPMENTS ---------------------------- We are implementing some of these only for certain platforms, so for the moment, they are not all tested or available for generic use. 1. GNU Simulators GDB now includes a generic interface to instruction set simulators. Simulator libraries are currently available for the Zilog Z8001/2, and the Hitachi H8/300, H8/500, and the Super-H. Other instruction set simulators are in development. Programs written for these instruction sets can be executed from the Unix shell by typing "run program", or can be run under GDB for full symbolic debugging. The user simply types the command "target sim" to access the simulator. The rest of the debugging session then proceeds as normal. Embedded systems developers benefit from fast downloading of target programs, and from easy access when the hardware is not readily available. The instruction simulators provide accurate timings and cycle and instruction counts for performance analysis. Since full source code is provided, it would be straightforward to add counting for specific instructions, or to analyze output for the occurrence of specific instruction sequences to help in chip design. Please contact us if you have a simulator that you would like to contribute. We can also write simulators to suit your particular needs, e.g., optimized for speed of execution or for code size. SUPPORT ACTIVITIES ------------------- In addition to new development, a significant part of our engineering resources is devoted to answering questions, fixing problems in the GNU software, and providing a range of support services to our customers. 1. Correspondence on PR's Sometimes the process of resolution for a problem report may require several exchanges of information in email. We'd like to ask you for your help in dealing with this correspondence. a. Put the PRMS ID number in the subject line. Each PR has a unique ID consisting of the program name and a number, e.g., gcc/1. Putting this in the subject line of followup messages (as automatically happens if you reply to the original acknowledgement message sent from PRMS) will allow PRMS to automatically file it under the correct problem report. b. Always send a copy to bugs@cygnus.com. This ensures that all our support staff has ready access to the information in our PRMS database. Otherwise, if a support person is away unexpectedly, as happened to us recently, parts of a critical bug report may be inaccessible for extended periods of time. 2. Software maintenance status The following table shows the maintenance statistics for the last four weeks. We continue to need your help: please let us know when you agree that a problem has been fixed so that we can move it from a "feedback" state to a "closed" state. # # # # # # Date Open Analzd Fdback Closed Suspnd Total ------------------------------------------------------------ 04/19/93 416 155 604 1,187 123 2,485 05/17/93 430 166 659 1,229 123 2,607 ------------------------------------------------------------ Change +14 +11 +55 +42 0 +122 OTHER ITEMS ----------- 1. Apologies Due to a system administration oversight on our part, a promotional mailing from another organization went out on the ICE mailing list last month. Our editorial policy is to not make our mailing list available to third parties. Please accept our apologies for this "leakage" (which has since been repaired). 2. Customer Forum We value your suggestions, and would like your response to the following questions (to engnews@cygnus.com). We will publish summaries of answers of general interest in a following issue. We are revisiting the issue of a graphical user interface for GDB (besides Emacs gdb-mode). 1. Would this be useful to you? 2. If so, what are the most important features you would like to see? 3. What windowing system would you like to see supported for this GUI? --------------------------------------------------------------------- Cygnus Support 1937 Landings Drive One Kendall Square Mountain View, CA 94043 Cambridge, MA 02139 +1 415 903 1400 voice +1 617 494 1040 voice +1 415 903 0122 fax +1 617 494 1325 fax ---------------------------------------------------------------------