Innovative C Compiler for ESP32: xcc700 Released

Innovation in Microcontroller Technology

With dual cores operating at 240 MHz and approximately 8.5 MB of non-banked RAM, the adapted version of the ESP32-S3 proves to be a promising mini PC in terms of specifications. This suggests it should be capable of hosting its own compiler, a feat achieved by Valentyn Danylchuk with the xcc700 project.

The xcc700 compiler, designed for the Xtensa Lx7 architecture of the ESP32-S3, is a minimalist C compiler that generates relocatable ELF binaries. These binaries can then be executed using the elf_loader component based on the ESP-IDF. It is noteworthy that the use of this compiler is optimal on an ESP32 platform equipped with PSRAM, unless your binary fits within the few hundred kB remaining after loading stacks for communication management and other functions.

Currently, the xcc700 compiler is very minimal, omitting more complex loop types and long-term and floating-point data types, serving as a starting point. Furthermore, there are no optimizations for the final code, but considering it consists of only 700 lines of code as a proof of concept, there is still ample room for improvement.