WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2026
binutils/gas
Add RISC-V Zama16b extension support
Binutils assembler now supports the RISC-V Zama16b extension.
This commit adds support for the RISC-V Zama16b extension to the binutils assembler. The changes include updates to BFD’s ELF support for RISC-V and the gas assembler’s NEWS file and test suite.
In Details
This patch adds support for the RISC-V Zama16b extension, a draft specification. Modifications are made in BFD's RISC-V ELF object file code (elfxx-riscv.c) to recognize the extension and in the GNU Assembler (gas) to update its NEWS file and test suite. This ensures the assembler can correctly process instructions associated with Zama16b.
For Context
- RISC-V
- An open-standard Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) based on RISC principles. It is designed to be simple, modular, and extensible, allowing for various specialized profiles and extensions.
- Zama16b
- A specific RISC-V extension that adds new instructions, likely related to atomic operations or memory access, to the base ISA. Its inclusion in binutils allows developers to target hardware supporting this extension.
- BFD
- The Binary File Descriptor library. It's a core component of binutils that provides a common interface for reading and writing various object file formats, including ELF, COFF, and a.out.
- ELF
- Executable and Linkable Format. A standard file format for executables, object code, shared libraries, and core dumps, widely used on Unix-like systems. BFD handles parsing and generating ELF files.
- gas
- The GNU Assembler. It translates assembly language code into machine code, often as a frontend to BFD for handling object file formats.