gcc 4.6.1 anyone?

[Altera_Forum]

Hello, 

 gcc 4.1.2, as good as it was in its time, isn't good enough anymore. Has anyone successfully integrated the nios2 backend from 4.1.2 into 4.5.x or 4.6.1?  Is there any effort on Altera's side to get nios2 support into the FSF gcc tree?  Regards, -david

[Altera_Forum]

Not in the short term...... Any compiler change open's up a football field can of worms. This is why version 3 and 4 are still shipped.

[Altera_Forum]

The code generated by newer versions of gcc isn't necessarily better than that for previous versions - even if the same machine definitions can be used. 

 The code for x86 and ppc (maybe sparc and arm) might be slightly better, but everything else might be problematic. For instance going from (IIRC) 4.1 to 4.5 increased the code size for m68k by a factor of 1.5 and generated illegal code!  You might find that the existing nios2 files can be dropped directly into a later gcc build - there are no significant differences between the altera supplied nios2 files for the existing gcc3 and gcc4 builds.

[Altera_Forum]

There can be any number of reasons for larger code on m68k, what language, which libc, optimization level, etc. 

 Any idea where can I find the nios-specific source for the binutils?