Author Topic: ImageCract ICC11 v5/v6 (motorola 68hc11, 80s, 90s technology): how good is it?  (Read 1914 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline legacyTopic starter

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • !
  • Posts: 4415
  • Country: ch
anyone has experience with this C compiler? Since it's very expensive(1) I'd like to hear how good it is before evaluating the purchase. I can't at the moment try the demo, it only works on Windows < Vista, I can't install a virtual machine on my job workstation (I am not at home).

Anyone?

I can tell gcc v3.4.6 is the last one with support and ... well, it does a good job but it tends to be bloated. When your ROM is limited to 32Kbyte, a smart C compiler makes the difference  :D

up t


(1) It's sill available, and it's 250 euro for a license.
 

Offline richardman

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 427
  • Country: us
I wrote the compiler so I can answer some of your questions. Surprised that you can still find it for sale though! It has not been updated since 2000 or so.

The front end is based on David Hansen and Christopher Fraser's LCC front end, so it C89 conformant with exception when it comes to only supporting 32 bit "double". The library is not a complete C library either.

The generated code is decent, but with no attempt to optimize register usage, so it will lose to hand written asm by probably at least a factor of 2. It should be competitive with other HC11 compilers though and should be better than Small-C and other "for fun" compilers.

As for cost, at its day, it was priced at around $100 with its major commercial competitors costing at least$2000 or more!
// richard http://imagecraft.com/
JumpStart C++ for Cortex (compiler/IDE/debugger): the fastest easiest way to get productive on Cortex-M.
Smart.IO: phone App for embedded systems with no app or wireless coding
 
The following users thanked this post: jancumps

Offline legacyTopic starter

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • !
  • Posts: 4415
  • Country: ch
Quote
Surprised that you can still find it for sale though! It has not been updated since 2000 or so.

From this link:

Quote
Freescale CPU08 / HC11 / HC16 development tools
Version 6 C Compiler Tools with Windows IDE for Freescale microcontrollers

Pricing and Availability
ICC08 and ICC11 start at just $249 ($99 for ICC16)
View Options and Accessories / Buy
NOTE: These products have been designated EOL (End of Life) and are sold without technical support. They are not compatible with Vista or Windows 7 but will work under Win95, Win2K, ME and XP. Please try the 30 day fully functional demo to make sure that the product you are interested in does work for your purposes before making a purchase.

and it seems you can still download the Demo version, and then get it registered when you purchase a license online  :-//

Quote
Small-C and other "for fun" compilers.

About that, is there any source of Small-C for HC11? I can't see the machine layer.
SDCC doesn't implement it.
« Last Edit: September 25, 2018, 02:10:14 am by legacy »
 

Offline richardman

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 427
  • Country: us
The "legacy" folder is there for... legacy reasons, and not linked on the current home page. I presume the person who emailed us today is you and I will follow up the communications there. The short answer is: "it's a dead and unsupported product".
// richard http://imagecraft.com/
JumpStart C++ for Cortex (compiler/IDE/debugger): the fastest easiest way to get productive on Cortex-M.
Smart.IO: phone App for embedded systems with no app or wireless coding
 

Offline legacyTopic starter

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • !
  • Posts: 4415
  • Country: ch
The short answer is: "it's a dead and unsupported product".

so it should be written explicitly  ;)

What is the purpose of offering a product that needs an activation code that is no more provided, and without the unlocking code the product will expire?

It doesn't make sense for me  :-//

Guys at Cosmic are still offering their demo version of the C compiler for HC11, where the limitation is only about the amount of code you can compile; of course, they don't give assistance either technical support, but their product won't expire.

The "legacy" folder is there for... legacy reasons

Well, there are a couple of dudes on the Internet offering for some bucks a kit they have recently purchased from a US-government facility which was removing excess. This kit contains a 68hc11 board and all the necessary cables and gadgets, and also a couple of floppy disks with Icc11 on them, offered with an unlocking code.

I don't know it's cracked or not, but it comes in mind that if people crack the software ... there must be also a reason for this  :popcorn:
« Last Edit: September 25, 2018, 11:47:54 am by legacy »
 

Offline richardman

  • Frequent Contributor
  • **
  • Posts: 427
  • Country: us
I have to repeat that the page is not linked from our main page. We could blow that dir away of course, but I would like to keep a bit of history around.

Basically, it's like you found an old magazine with an ad for a product, and asking why they don't sell that product any more when you contact them  ;D
« Last Edit: September 25, 2018, 07:40:20 pm by richardman »
// richard http://imagecraft.com/
JumpStart C++ for Cortex (compiler/IDE/debugger): the fastest easiest way to get productive on Cortex-M.
Smart.IO: phone App for embedded systems with no app or wireless coding
 

Offline legacyTopic starter

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • !
  • Posts: 4415
  • Country: ch
p.s. we at DownTheBunker keep old versions of Icc, among other stuff for old MPUs  :popcorn:
 

Offline legacyTopic starter

  • Super Contributor
  • ***
  • !
  • Posts: 4415
  • Country: ch
Found icc11 v6.5 professional on the hard drive of a second-hand laptop  :popcorn:
and it cost less than the license you are not willing to sale: 60 Euro for the whole laptop!
 


Share me

Digg  Facebook  SlashDot  Delicious  Technorati  Twitter  Google  Yahoo
Smf