How I developed an Am29000 C compiler and web browser

by Oscar Toledo G. Aug/16/2026

If you have read my previous article, you’ll know that I developed a windowed operating system in 32-bit machine code for a homebrew computer based on the Am29000 processor. In this article, I’ll talk about the development of my C compiler for these processors, and a web browser.

The time period was between Christmas 1998 and my birthday in 1999. I was age 20, Internet was spreading like fire in Mexico, Bruce Willis just saved the Earth from a giant asteroid, new careers emerged for the nascent Internet (it was a gold year for graphic designers), people was scared that the year 2000 bug would trigger a digital armageddon (even the Simpsons ran an episode where Homer forgets updating the computers), and Arnold Schwarzenegger was killing demons with bullets in End of Days.

Find me a C compiler

Along 1997, I developed some utilities, printer drivers (I had an HP DeskJet 500, and managed to print in color in the Epson Stylus 600), and even managed to send and receive fax using the modem card. It was a time when everyone asked if you had a fax machine to send you advertisements, or to get information. We even bought a fax machine, and the next year, no one asked again for a fax. Welcome to the e-mail!

Anyways, working in machine code was hard, and it was like doing a deep dive in muddy water. Unless you get a dive mask to see under (the notes about addresses and some documentation), you’ll get more and more lost.

Even with all my teen energy, I started to get tired, because I couldn’t code new functions without devising a careful memory planning, how to move the code to make space, or worst, relocate several jumps and introducing unexpected bugs because I missed one change. At some point, I just thought “this could grow” and inside the code you can find sequences of 5 to 10 NOP instructions for further expansion. Another thing you can find is routines out of place, because these didn't fit the original place.

As I was already a regular visitor to an Internet café (or more known in Mexico as cybercafé). One of the first Internet café was located just crossing the street from the now defunct Bazar Pericoapa, and it also served coffee. We browsed the Internet at the rhythm of "Ciega, sordomuda", "Amor de papel", “Laura no esta” and “Barbie girl”. Of course, they soon recognized their mistake when cappuccinos and expressos were spilled into keyboards, and coffee was never served again.

I was searching anything about the Am29000 processor, and I found about the High-C 29k compiler, and GNU C compiler v2.8.1 with support for Am29000. I had no way of buying the High-C 29k compiler, so I could download only the GCC sources, and I found it required at least 2 mb. of RAM in the computer (and probably more if we think in the virtual memory), when my computer only had 512 kb of RAM. Worst, it required two more programs: Flex and Bison.

... continue reading