Automatic Architecture Description Language (ADL)-Based Toolchain Generation: The Dynamic Linking Framework

Abstract. In order to succeed in the fulfillment of clients ever increasing ex-pectations, embedded systems companies are entering the area of multitasking environments. As memory is still a primary concern to achieve a good tradeoff between system performance and cost, we cannot rule out dynamic linking tech-niques since they reduce memory consumption at runtime. Using parameters from an ADL model of the processor, it is possible to generate a complete soft-ware toolchain for the platform under development, including simulators and binary tools. In this paper we focus on the elaboration of the dynamic linker component of our work-in-progress compiler toolchain generator. More pre-cisely, we describe the modifications to the platform loader and linker so as to support dynamic linking. We present a case study for the ArchC ADL and show how a complete dynamic linking environment is generated for the ARM archi-tecture based on its ADL model, followed by an analysis of the performance impact. 1