Peter - Intel is porting the NetBoost programming interface, called the IX API, to the IXP1200. This is not yet available, the developers release is due out in the fourth quarter of this year. This interface includes C++ classes. Full featured StrongArm(TM) C/C++ compilers are provided by ARM Ltd and through the FSF. Cygnus provides additional support for the GNU compiler. We do not have compiler which creates code for the uEngines. Since you have functional C code that runs on a particular Microprocessor I suggest that you port the functionality to the IXP1200 StrongARM core initially choosing the minimum subset of functionality that handles the reception and transmission of network data for implementation onto the uEngines. Once the application is running you can then use performance analysis to determine which elements of the application should be ported to run on the uEngines. In short, port the C based application to the IXP1200 using a core centric perspective, remembering that the uEngines must ultimately host the time critical application code. I hope this helps you get started. Best Regards - Dale Paige -----Original Message----- From: Peter Yang [mailto:pyang@MIT.EDU] Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2000 2:38 PM To: Paige, Dale W Subject: IXP1200 programming Hi Dale - How are you? My name is Peter Yang, and I am working with Prof. Hari Balakrishnan here at MIT on a IXP1200 project as part of the Intel grant. I saw some of your emails on the Princeton IXP1200 mailing list, and I was wondering if you'd be able to answer a couple of questions for me. First, I was wondering if Intel has any plans to add C/C++ compiler support for the Microengines. The reason I ask this is that I've been doing some background reading on various network processors, and I've seen that some companies like C-port have chosen to provide a big mess of software tools, including compilers for their RISC cores. I was wondering if Intel has anything similar in the works (though, judging from the features and ease of use of the Developer's Workbench, it seems like this is unlikely -- still, I thought I'd ask ...) On a second, related topic, as part of our project, we would like to port some previously written programs to the IXP1200. As there are no compilers, this task does not look as easy as it once appeared. Do you have any hints for how we might accomplish this? One method I've been contemplating is to compile the code into assembly code for some instruction set similar to the IXA instruction set and then translating that assembly to IXA assembly. Do you know of any ISAs that are similar to yours that might work for this purpose? I realize these questions are somewhat out of the blue, but I figured that asking you directly would save me some trouble. If you feel you are unable to answer these questions, would you be able to point me to someone who might be able to? Thank you for all your help. Sincerely, Peter Yang