9.16.1 i860 Notes

This is a fairly complete i860 assembler which is compatible with the UNIX System V/860 Release 4 assembler. However, it does not currently support SVR4 PIC (i.e., @GOT, @GOTOFF, @PLT).

Like the SVR4/860 assembler, the output object format is ELF32. Currently, this is the only supported object format. If there is sufficient interest, other formats such as COFF may be implemented.

Both the Intel and AT&T/SVR4 syntaxes are supported, with the latter being the default. One difference is that AT&T syntax requires the ’%’ prefix on register names while Intel syntax does not. Another difference is in the specification of relocatable expressions. The Intel syntax is ha%expression whereas the SVR4 syntax is [expression]@ha (and similarly for the "l" and "h" selectors).