| Amsterdam Compiler Kit | |
|---|---|
| Original authors | Andrew Tanenbaum, Ceriel Jacobs |
| Developer | David Given |
| Initial release | early 1980s |
| Stable release | 6.2+ / April 17, 2025; 10 months ago (2025-04-17) |
| Written in | C |
| Operating system | Minix,Unix-like |
| Type | Retargetable compiler |
| License | BSD licenses |
| Website | tack |
| Repository | |
TheAmsterdam Compiler Kit (ACK) is aretargetable compiler suite andtoolchain written byAndrew Tanenbaum andCeriel Jacobs, since 2005 maintained byDavid Given.[1] It has frontends for the followingprogramming languages:C,Pascal,Modula-2,BASIC, andOccam.
The ACK's notability stems from the fact that in the early 1980s it was one of the first portable compilation systems designed to support multiple source languages and target platforms.[2][3]
The ACK was known asMINIX's native compiler toolchain until the MINIXuserland was largely replaced by that ofNetBSD (MINIX 3.2.0) andClang was adopted as the system compiler.
It was originally closed-source software, initially distributed by Tanenbaum himself,[4] later through UniPress Software and Transmediair Utrecht as distributors in the Americas and Europe respectively. The distribution of compilerbinaries for MINIX was a special case in this arrangement.[5] In April 2003, it was released under theBSD licenses.
Maximum portability is achieved by using anintermediate language usingbytecode, called EM-1[6] or EM[citation needed]. Each language front-end produces EMobject files, which are then processed through several generic optimisers before being translated by a back-end into nativemachine code.
ACK comes with a generic linker and librarian capable of manipulating files in the ACK's owna.out-based format; it will work on files containing EM code as well as native machine code. However, EM code cannot be linked to native machine code without translating the EM binary first.
ACK backends can produce native machine code for a wide range of CPUs, even starting with small 8 bit CPUs.
* Version 6.0
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