About DICE-nx

This is DICE-nx - a C compiler for Commodore Amiga computers and embedded 68k systems. DICE-nx includes all the tools needed to build Amiga executables - the C compiler itself, as well as an assembler, linker and numerous other support tools. It also has several Amiga-specific features, such as automatic opening of the common Amiga OS libraries, easy support for ARexx, and more.

DICE can also target embedded systems using 68000 processors.

DICE-nx is a fork of DICE, which was originally a commercial product written by Matt Dillon in the 1990s. In the late 1990s, commercial development of DICE ceased and its source code was released under a “non-commercial use only” license. In 2023, Matt re-licensed it under the standard 3-clause BSD license, meaning for the first time ever DICE was available under a true open-source license.

DICE-nx aims to re-start development of DICE, and focusing on its original aim of providing a fully-featured C compiler for Amiga computers. At this time, the original 68000-based Amiga series is seeing increased support from retro-computing enthusiasts, including the restarting of AmigaOS development with the release of AmigaOS 3.2. DICE-nx aims to provide for this audience, fully supporting AmigaOS 3.2 and native development on real Amiga hardware.

What’s new in DICE-nx

Although DICE-nx is in the early stages of its life, it has already made these changes from the original DICE:

Compatibility with AmigaOS 3.2, the latest release of the 68000-based AmigaOS from Hyperion Entertainment
A new Installer-based hard drive installation process
A reworked build system that can bootstrap DICE-nx from either an earlier version of DICE on an Amiga, or using GCC on a Linux PC
Strips back on duplicated, unused and optional 3rd-party files
A number of bug fixes and small improvements

Many bigger changes are planned to happen in future releases!

Built exclusively for the Commodore Amiga

DICE-nx is a fully self-hosted C compiler system that runs natively on the Commodore Amiga series of computers. As the Amiga system is its first-class target, it offers a number of features specially suited to the Amiga:

Fully-integrated support for AmigaOS functionality. Call into AmigaOS as easily as calling a regular C function. The AmigaOS NDK provides full function prototypes, macros, structure definitions and more to make using AmigaOS from C as simple as possible. Inline library calls make OS calls fast and efficient.
Integrated ARexx support, allowing you to add ARexx ports to your applications with ease and support cross-process scripting Amiga-style.
Create pure executables that can be loaded Resident with a simple compiler option.
Supporting 3rd-party “library” as easily as AmigaOS itself - write code that uses bsdsocket.library, MUI, ReqTools and many more with little effort. The support for libraries is generic, supported by tools provided by DICE-nx, meaning that any Amiga library that comes with C headers and an FD file can be integrated into DICE-nx.

Get Started

To get started with DICE-nx, head over to the Get Started page and download the latest binary distribution!