IAR Systems supports application binary interface for the ARM architecture (EABI) specification
(Technology News, 18 May 2007 )
The increasing complexity of embedded applications has brought a consequent increase in the level of component-based development, and it is becoming essential for developers to have the capability to use third-party libraries or components. Until recently tools from different vendors used different Application Binary Interfaces (ABIs), thus making the components incompatible.
IAR Embedded Workbench for ARM technology is the first independent tool to adopt the EABI. This will reduce the project complexity and the development cost for software developers within the ARM ecosystem. This is accomplished through the ability to combine components developed with any EABI-compliant toolchains and third-party component libraries without needing to access the source code. Currently, EABI is supported by the ARM RealView Development Suite and the GNU toolchain.
The addition of EABI support brings many benefits. Firstly it gives the system integrator the ability to acquire a wide choice of components regardless of the tool used by the component vendor. It also reduces the need for component vendors to support multiple compiler tool chains. Finally, it opens up a possibility in the future for the Linux community to reduce its application footprint by using a commercial compiler such as IAR Embedded Workbench.
