IBM S/370 and binutils

[David and Jannette Uczen]

I am willing to help in any way I can. I will contact Chris Swartout again
and see if I can get an ABI.

--David

-----Original Message-----
From: linas@linas.org <linas@linas.org>
To: David and Jannette Uczen <uczen@mint.net>
Cc: linas@linas.org <linas@linas.org>; ian@zembu.com <ian@zembu.com>;
binutils@sourceware.cygnus.com <binutils@sourceware.cygnus.com>;
cas30@oes.amdahl.com <cas30@oes.amdahl.com>; LINUX-VM@VM.MARIST.EDU
<LINUX-VM@VM.MARIST.EDU>
Date: Saturday, October 30, 1999 2:45 PM
Subject: Re: IBM S/370 and binutils


>Hi David,
>
>It's been rumoured that David and Jannette Uczen said:
>>
>> You should be able to get an ABI from Amdahl Corporation, through UTS
>> Technical Support. I have contacted a Chris A. Swartout
>> (cas30@oes.amdahl.com), who verified that the value of EM_S370 (9) is
used
>> for IBM System/370 Processors. This value still exists in the binutils
>> source (/binutils/include/elf/common.h).
>> I have had the value officially registered with SCO (registry@sco.com). A
>> new ABI is going to be published soon.
>> I myself am trying to get ABI information, but haven't heard back yet.
>
>You apologized for a long overview in your last note, so let me do
>the same here.
>
>Be aware that there are multiple ABI specs.  The one kept by SCO
>outlines the structure of the ELF file format that is common to *all*
>ELF-based architectures.  You can download this spec as a PDF file
>from the SCO website; my webpage gives the pointer to it.  The binutils
>contain a back-end that knows how to manipulate this geenric file
>format.
>
>Seperately, there are processor-specific ABI's that define things like
>the stack layout, the static linkage and register conventions, the
>dynamic linkage mechanisms, and occasionally even the system call
>interfaces.  I beleive SCO maintains the Intel ABI, Sun maintains the
>PowerPC ABI, and SGI the MIPS ABI.  It is this later document, that
>hopefully Amdahl maintains for the IBM processors (isn't it a curious
>accident of fate that processor ABI's seem to be maintained by
>competitors?).
>
>In the gnu scheme of things, stack layout, register conventions are
>handled by the compiler gcc.  Dynamic linking is handled mostly by
>the binutils ld loader, with assist from gcc.  The system call
>interfaces are a shared responsibility between the C Library glibc
>and the kernel (Linux or UTS in Amdahl's case).  As you can see,
>ABI conformance has prevasive effects, and full, 100% conformance
>can be a rather overwhelming task, especially when subtlties with
>glibc and the OS kernel enter the picture.
>
>--linas
>
>