IXP1200 programming

[Paige, Dale W]

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 at 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