The NetBSD Foundation Press Release: libcxxrt C++ Runtime Now Available Under BSD License

May 23, 2011  The FreeBSD Foundation and the NetBSD Foundation announced today that they have acquired a non-exclusive copyright license to the libcxxrt C++ runtime software from PathScale, a leader in high performance Fortran, C, and C++ compiler products for AMD64, Intel64, and MIPS. This software is an implementation of the C++ Application Binary Interface originally developed for Itanium and now used for the x86 family by BSD operating systems. Libcxxrt will be available under the 2-clause BSD license.

This implementation is a full replacement for the GNU libsupc++ library for platforms that use the Itanium C++ ABI, including i386 and x86-64, and will replace portions of the C++ stack previously only available under the GPL. It provides implementations of the dynamic features of C++, including dynamic casting, exception handling, and thread-safe static initializers, and will continue the gradual replacement of GNU toolchain and runtime components, furthering the aim of a purely BSD-licensed system.

"This work complements other work done in the community and is a further step in letting us adopt alternative toolchains in FreeBSD," said Robert Watson, a FreeBSD committer and Director at the FreeBSD Foundation.

"There are already a number of STL implementations with other licenses, but libcxxrt is the missing link for a BSD licensed C++ compiler and the C++ runtime," said NetBSD developer Joerg Sonnenberger.

"It's great to work with the BSD community and help provide these core parts of the toolchain," said Christopher Bergström, CTO at PathScale. "This is a first step to PathScale offering first class support for both NetBSD and FreeBSD."

About PathScale

PathScale Inc. has developed industry leading high performance Fortran, C and C++ compiler products for AMD64, Intel 64, MIPS processors and provides support to users desiring the highest level of performance from their applications. The PathScale EKOPath Compiler Suite has the world's most advanced optimization infrastructure and can fully exploit the potentials of many-core architectures. The companys goal is to deliver robust and high performance compilers tailored to clustered, GPGPU and multi-core computing environments. More information about PathScale is available on the web at http://www.pathscale.com.

About The FreeBSD Foundation

The FreeBSD Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the FreeBSD Project and community. The Foundation gratefully accepts donations from individuals and businesses, using them to fund and manage projects, sponsor FreeBSD events, Developer Summits and provide travel grants to FreeBSD developers. In addition, the Foundation represents the FreeBSD Project in executing contracts, license agreements, and other legal arrangements that require a recognized legal entity. The FreeBSD Foundation is entirely supported by donations. More information about The FreeBSD Foundation is available on the web at http://www.FreeBSDFoundation.org.

About The NetBSD Foundation

The NetBSD Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the NetBSD Project and community. Under its education and research mandate, it supports development of the NetBSD operating system which supports over fifty different computer architectures from a single, unified set of kernel and userland source files. The NetBSD codebase is used by commercial embedded developers, educational institutions, and individual end-users. Through donations received from individuals and corporations the Foundation is able to fund substantial work undertaken by developers. More information about The NetBSD Foundation is available at http://www.NetBSD.org/foundation/.

(This is a joint press release with FreeBSD.)