Hi tonofsteel,
We use the RVCT compiler in ARM RVDS to compile Netduino firmware.
There have been some awesome community efforts to get the NETMF firmware to compile with GCC, but official NETMF support for GCC typically lags behind (i.e. not synced with releases). GCC used to compile really big code and so it was less desirable, but with more recent compiler improvements GCC support should probably be pulled in as a synchronized compiler option.
If you pull one of the NETMF-GCC projects from the web and the latest Netduino firmware source from the Downloads page, that will give you a starting point. [We will also be checking in Netduino source to the Netduino github site once NETMF 4.4 is released, like the core NETMF distribution.]
Most developers are interested in Netduino and NETMF for writing C# apps, so that is where most of the focus has been.
On native compilation (interop or otherwise): this is something we've been talking about with the team in Redmond for quite a while. There are certainly applications where this could be beneficial, and we may be able to bring this to a future release of NETMF, but nothing to announce today.
I know that's not a ton of helpful info to get you off and running, but does that at least get you started down the path?
Chris
Thanks Chris and neslekkim, I did happen across those two in the past and since posting I have found my original cache of links to relevant sites. When looking I forgot to look at the NETMF-GCC code bases that were for the STM32 and not exactly for the Netduino, so yes that will be an excellent place to cross reference for clues.
If I ever get any headway on this I will post back and investigate creating a wiki article like referenced above with anything useful I find.....