[AArch64] Announcing the Morello branch in binutils-gdb

[Hesham Almatary]

Hello Joel,

On Thu, 29 Oct 2020 at 15:02, Joel Sherrill <joel at rtems.org> wrote:
>
> Morello is a prototype implementation of CHERI. Binutils will remain on a branch and the compiler support is LLVM.
>
> Hesham.. any thoughts?
>
We are very excited about the Morello releases. It should get more
people to try out CHERI. I have a functional CHERI-RISC-V RTEMS port
already. Having a CHERI-AArch64 RTEMS port would be great, and it
shouldn't be that much effort given that there's a CHERI-RISC-V port.
Unfortunately, I can't work on that in the near future. That said, if
anyone would be interested I'd be glad to help. There is also a new
Slack channel [1] for anyone who's doing some CHERI work or just has
questions. We can probably create a GSoC project idea for that as
well.

[1] cheri-cpu.slack.com



> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> From: Kyrylo Tkachov via Binutils <binutils at sourceware.org>
> Date: Thu, Oct 29, 2020 at 6:52 AM
> Subject: [AArch64] Announcing the Morello branch in binutils-gdb
> To: Binutils <binutils at sourceware.org>
> Cc: gnu-morello at op-lists.linaro.org <gnu-morello at op-lists.linaro.org>
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> We, Arm, have pushed the users/ARM/morello-binutils-gdb-master branch to the
> binutils repo implementing initial support for the Morello architecture [1].
> The Morello architecture is a prototype implementation of the capability-based
> CHERI [2] architecture in AArch64, intended to promote research into capability
> architectures and their deployment.
>
> The gas, objdump and ld components on the branch are in reasonable shape and
> have been used to assemble and link a Linux kernel with Morello modifications.
> The GDB port is more of a work in progress.
> All code is liable to change going forward, as our understanding of the deployment
> opportunities and challenges evolves.
>
> We have published an LLVM-based Morello toolchain [3] that can be used to try out
> the compiler support available for Morello.
> The ABI specifications (available on developer.arm.com [4]) are in an alpha state
> and are likely to change going forward.
>
> There is work ongoing on porting GCC and glibc to Morello and we will share
> more details as that work progresses.
>
> As Morello is a prototype architecture we intend to maintain the toolchain
> components on a branch rather than integrate it into master.
> We are interested in any feedback you have on the code.
> To report bugs please use the GitLab mirror set up at:
> https://git.morello-project.org/morello-gnu-toolchain/binutils-gdb
>
> Please send any patches or start discussions on the gnu-morello [5] list,
> kindly hosted by Linaro.
>
> Maintainers for the branch are:
> * GDB: Luis Machado <luis.machado at linaro.org>
> * Binutils: Matthew Malcomson <matthew.malcomson at arm.com>
> * Binutils: Kyrylo Tkachov <kyrylo.tkachov at arm.com>
>
> We are very excited to investigate the challenges and possibilities of a
> capability-based architecture. Please have a read through the links below
> if this project is of interest to you and reach out to us on the list [5]
>
> If you have any feedback or discussions about the Morello architecture and
> program you are welcome to reach out on the forums [6].
>
> We look forward to sharing more in the near future.
>
> Last but not least, I'd like to say a big thank you to Siddhesh Poyarekar
> for the binutils port described here.
>
> Thanks,
> Kyrill
>
> [1] https://developer.arm.com/architectures/cpu-architecture/a-profile/morello
> [2] https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/security/ctsrd/cheri/
> [3] https://git.morello-project.org/morello/llvm-project
> [4] https://developer.arm.com/architectures/system-architectures/software-standards/abi
> [5] https://op-lists.linaro.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-morello
> [6] https://community.arm.com/developer/research/morello/