Quality Motorola 68000/68020 macro assembler on PC ?? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: Digitaldreams
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 13, 2021, 04:56:49 pm
content: I've been looking for an official Motorola 68000/68020/68882 macro assembler that will work on PC and generate suitable files for EPROM programmers.A few years back I used the Bird Computer asm68 assembler via bat file to create .s19 files yet I'm hoping for something a little more professional, streamlined and capable of writing code for the 68020 and 68882 maths coprocessor and handling macros etc.Motorola 68000 range was later handled by Freescale Semiconductor yet getting access from them to an official 68k assembler is far from easy so late in the day. Happy to pay if not a fortune...Thanks in advance !

author: Benta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 13, 2021, 06:01:15 pm
content: Assemblers are not very special, they normally just work,The classic asm68k should be fine, I don't understand your specific needs.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 13, 2021, 06:11:16 pm
content: If you're cross-assembling, I suggest simply using GCC for 68k targets. See there for instance:https://gnutoolchains.com/m68k-elf/It will give you access to C as well, but you can just use the GNU assembler and linker.objcopy, part of binutils (which comes with this toolchain) will generate hex files from elf, using the "-O srec" command-line option.I'm sure there are tons of other options, this is just one I know works.

author: Digitaldreams
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 13, 2021, 06:14:57 pm
content: Quote from: Benta on February 13, 2021, 06:01:15 pmAsm68 will not work for 68020/68882 neither will it accept macros.

author: Digitaldreams
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 13, 2021, 06:17:03 pm
content: Quote from: SiliconWizard on February 13, 2021, 06:11:16 pmNot cross assembling, writing directly in machine code.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 13, 2021, 06:20:54 pm
content: Quote from: Digitaldreams on February 13, 2021, 06:17:03 pmAssembling 68k code on a PC is cross-assembling. This is what you can do with the toolchain I mentioned, and what you asked for as far as I got it.

author: Digitaldreams
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 13, 2021, 08:17:37 pm
content: Quote from: SiliconWizard on February 13, 2021, 06:20:54 pmThanks, understood now (its been a while). I'll look into that for sure yet the visual front end they offer looks messy to set up . Having difficulty searching for m68k-elf documentation too... VASM looks interesting and documentation is available, thoughts ?

author: Benta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 13, 2021, 09:21:26 pm
content: Easiest way is to useasfrom the GNU project and plug it into a development environment such as Eclipse.You'll need a linker and a loader as well to end up with s19 records. Both are also available from GNU and can be plugged in to Eclipse for a complete chain.

author: Digitaldreams
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 13, 2021, 09:42:15 pm
content: Quote from: Benta on February 13, 2021, 09:21:26 pmA syntax checking development environment once set up would be much better and easier to use than the old dos/.bat file system I was using yet does look a headache to set up (I'm getting old now). An easy to follow tutorial for 68000/68020/68882 targets and s.record output would be great if available though. Back in my day we used a Tektronix terminal (the oscilloscope maker) to write 68000 macro code (or was it Z80 code ?) and it was a breeze...