Re: Idea for Google Summer Code : C Compiler for EFI Byte Code implement in gcc

[b95705030 at ntu dot edu dot tw]

¤Þ­z Andrew Haley <aph@redhat.com>:

> There is no reason in principle this shouldn't be part of gcc.
>
> I think no-one has responded yet because they don't know what it would
> be for, and how much work it would involve.

What compiler doing is: c -> intermediate language -> asm(ex. x86).
And then, c compiler for efi byte code is: c -> intermediate language  
-> efi byte code.
For the c -> intermediate language part, I hope to use original   
source code of gcc,so the main point of the project is implementing  
intermediate language -> efi byte code part

In my opinion,the project has some how similarity with compiling c  
language to java byte code. And in fact,it has been done by some open  
source project(ex.  
egcs-jvm[http://sourceforge.net/projects/egcs-jvm/]).  I am wondering  
to know that trace some existing c to java byte code project would  
give direction to implement this project or not.

> Is there an EFI interpreter that is free software?

EFI,the  
specification[http://download.intel.com/technology/efi/docs/EFI_1-10_Update.zip] which is a replacement for the older BIOS that defines EBC virtual machine. So BIOS in the future will contain this  part. In additional some present BIOS (ex.BIOS of MAC, BIOS of virtualbox) has already support  
EFI.

> Is this in any way related to plans for a free BIOS?

YES, coreboot[http://www.coreboot.org/Welcome_to_coreboot]and  
gnufi[http://www.gnu.org/software/gnufi/]

> Who would maintain this EFI back-end?

The EFI specification was originally developed by Intel, and is now  
managed by the Unified EFI Forum[http://www.uefi.org/home/].

> ... etc.
>
> Andrew.


thanks

yi-hong