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Appendix
Development Tool Chains
A development tool chain is the suite of programs (including the compiler, linker, assembler,
disassembler and library generation) used to develop for a specific executable format. This SDK
installs three different tool chains:
• The COFF tool chain. This tool chain is used to develop the uClinux kernel. There are
no libraries associated with this tool chain.
• The PIC-COFF tool chain. This tool chain is used to develop user applications. It has
the PIC-32 extensions already installed, which allow applications larger than 32K in size
to be created. This was the original tool chain, and is used to generate the uClinux
filesystem executables.
The library associated with this tool chain is the ‘uC-libc’ library. This library has been
optimized for the embedded environment, and produces exceptionally small executables.
• The ELF tool chain. This tool chain is also used to develop user applications. It is the
most common executable format in the Linux world at large, being the default format on
most desktop Linux workstations.
The library associated with this tool chain is the ‘uClibc’ library. This is a quite com-
plete library and is well maintained. Porting a program to uClinux will encounter the
fewest difficulties when the ELF tool chain with the uClibc library is used. The
executables produced by this tool chain are noticeably larger that those produced by
the PIC-COFF tool chain.
Note: The SDK does not include support for either the COFF or the ELF formats of an execut-
able, as both formats are converted to FLAT format by the linker. The PIC-COFF toolchain does
this automatically, while the ELF tool chain requires the ‘-elf2flt’ command line argument (see
below).