Overview of the ARM Compiler toolchain
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2.1 About the ARM Compiler toolchain
The ARM Compiler toolchain enables you to build applications for the ARM family of
processors from C, C++, or ARM assembly language source. The toolchain comprises:
armcc The ARM and Thumb
®
compiler. This compiles your C and C++ code. It supports
inline and embedded assemblers, and also includes the NEON
™
vectorizing
compiler, invoked using the command:
armcc --vectorize
The NEON vectorizing compiler is a separately licensed feature.
armasm The ARM and Thumb assembler. This assembles ARM and Thumb assembly
language sources.
armlink The linker. This combines the contents of one or more object files with selected
parts of one or more object libraries to produce an executable program.
A 64-bit version of
armlink
is also provided that can access the greater amount of
memory available on 64-bit machines. It supports all the features that are
supported by the 32-bit version of
armlink
in this release.
The 32-bit version is used by default.
armar The librarian. This enables sets of ELF format object files to be collected together
and maintained in archives or libraries. You can pass such a library or archive to
the linker in place of several ELF files. You can also use the archive for
distribution to a third party for further application development.
fromelf The image conversion utility. This can also generate textual information about the
input image, such as disassembly and its code and data size.
C++ libraries
The ARM C++ libraries provide:
• helper functions when compiling C++
• additional C++ functions not supported by the Rogue Wave library.
C libraries The ARM C libraries provide:
• an implementation of the library features as defined in the C and C++
standards
• extensions specific to the compiler, such as
_fisatty()
,
__heapstats()
, and
__heapvalid()
• GNU extensions
• common nonstandard extensions to many C libraries.
• POSIX extended functionality
• functions standardized by POSIX.
C micro-libraries
The ARM C micro-library (Microlib) provides a highly optimized set of
functions. These functions are for use with deeply embedded applications that
have to fit into extremely small amounts of memory.
