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We are using 8.05a of the CX51 compiler. Our program is over 300K long. The compiler times are getting rather long. About 2 minutes. Can the compiler make use of a dual processor to speed up compiling? What is the recommended computer to use? I realize that more RAM helps but after so much it may be irrelevant.
The Keil linker does a lot more work than a typical linker. It has a lot of overlay analysis and whole-program optimizations. And it does seem to have a steep growth curve with the size of the program, definitely not linear or even n log n.
I don't think the Keil tools are multithreaded. Still, a dual core makes the system a lot more responsive. When we changed from a 2.8G single core P4 system to a 3.0G Core Duo, the "build all" time for our project dropped from 30 minutes to 10 minutes. The machine also has a faster disk (10k RPM vice 5400, larger buffer).
Haven't tried on a quad core.