Small Device C Compiler

Small Device C Compiler
Developer(s)	Sandeep Dutta and others
Stable release	4.4.0 / January 29, 2024; 7 months ago
Repository	sourceforge.net/p/sdcc/code/HEAD/tree/ ;
Operating system	Microsoft Windows, macOS, GNU/Linux
Type	C compiler
License	GPL
Website	sdcc.sourceforge.net

The Small Device C Compiler (SDCC) is a free-software, partially retargetable^[1] C compiler for 8-bit microcontrollers. It is distributed under the GNU General Public License. The package also contains an assembler, linker, simulator and debugger. SDCC is a popular open-source C compiler for microcontrollers compatible with Intel 8051/MCS-51.^[2]^[3]^[4]

Supported hosts

Sources, documentation, and binaries are available for Linux (32-bit and 64-bit), macOS (PPC and 64-bit), and Windows (32-bit and 64-bit).

The following include binary compatible derivatives:

Intel 8031, 8032, 8051, 8052; Maxim/Dallas DS80C390; C8051
Motorola/Freescale/NXP 68HC08 and S08
Padauk PDK14 and PDK15^[5]
Sharp SM83, the CPU found in the Nintendo Game Boy LR35902 SoC
STMicroelectronics STM8
Zilog Z80, Z180, eZ80 in Z80 mode; Rabbit Semiconductor 2000, 2000A, 3000, 3000A, 4000; Toshiba TLCS-90; Z80N (ZX Spectrum Next processor), R800.
MOS Technology 6502, WDC 65C02.

Work in progress:

Obsolete:

AVR microcontrollers used to be a supported target, but was made obsolete by avr-gcc in 2010 (SDCC 3.0.0).

^ Rainer Leupers, Peter Marwedel: "Retargetable Compiler Technology for Embedded Systems: Tools and Applications", page 126. Springer, 2001
^ "Porting Contiki Operating System to RIEST2430" by Juan Wang, Wei Ma, and Dan Liu, published in "Emerging Intelligent Computing Technology and Applications", 2012, p. 383: "Due to the 8051 MCU’s unique characteristics, there are only a handful of toolchains available. The most noteworthy open source solution is the Small Device C Compiler (SDCC)."
^ Lewin Edwards "Open-Source Robotics and Process Control Cookbook: Designing and Building Robust, Dependable Real-time Systems", 2005, p. 15: "Worse still, the only halfway decent open-source C compiler for the 8051 (sdcc) is exactly that—only halfway decent."
^ Lewin A. R. W. Edwards (2006). So, You Wanna be an Embedded Engineer: The Guide to Embedded Engineering, from Consultancy to the Corporate Ladder. p. 51.: "I personally prefer to use the free compiler package, sdcc. This is unquestionably the poor man's choice of 8051 C compilers, ... in any case, sdcc is perfectly adequate for hobbyist, low-volume and/or educational projects."
^ Padauk website
^ "SDCC - Small Device C Compiler". Retrieved 2013-01-20.

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