The following is taken form a similar discussion on comp.arch embedded.

Lets face it, GCC and other freeware offerings have beat the compiler industry down to a shadow of its former self. As with any such dying business, the independents are simply deciding that it is not profitable to remain independent. The CPU makers are willing to subsidize compiler writing in a captive division, but not independent makers.

This is actually fine. These are market forces. These captured companies divest themselves of CPU support other than their new parents quite quickly. Metrowerks actually dropped non-PowerPC support before being bought by Freescale, perhaps to make themselves more attractive to Freescale.

Judging by the track record, Keil will drop non-arm support sooner or later, my bet is sooner. To paraphrase Bruce Springsteen, these compiler companies are going, boys, and they ain't coming back.

By the way, this happened to our company's processors a long time
ago, the Sparc. Today there is virtually only our own compiler and GCC.

Ian