Current consumption difference between GNU and IAR builds

[Robert]

I am experiencing a difference in current between the example program during advertising between a IAR compilation and a GNU compilation.

The differences appear to be significant in a range of 10x more power for the GNU during advertising.

[Robert]

The full code is ble_app_pwr_profiling/main.c. I didn't want to have to push any buttons so I made a minor change.

int main(void)
{
    //    ret_code_t err_code;
    //    bool is_notification_mode    = false;
    //    bool is_non_connectable_mode = false;

    timers_init();
    buttons_init();
    
#if 0
#if BUTTONS_NUMBER > 2
    // Check button states.
    // Notification Start button.
    is_notification_mode = bsp_board_button_state_get(NOTIF_BUTTON_ID);

    // Non-connectable advertisement start button.
    if (!is_notification_mode)
    {
        is_non_connectable_mode = bsp_board_button_state_get(NON_CONN_ADV_BUTTON_ID);
    }
    else
    {
        // Un-configured button.
    }
#else
    is_notification_mode = true;
#endif
#endif
    
    // Initialize SoftDevice.
    ble_stack_init();

#if 0
    if (!is_notification_mode && !is_non_connectable_mode)
    {
        // The startup was not because of button presses. This is the first start.
        // Go into System-Off mode. Button presses will wake the chip up.
        err_code = sd_power_system_off();
        APP_ERROR_CHECK(err_code);
    }
#endif
    
    // If we reach this point, the application was woken up
    // by pressing one of the two configured buttons.
    gap_params_init();
    gatt_init();

#if 1
    // Notification button is pressed. Start connectable advertisement.
    connectable_adv_init();
    service_add();
#else
    if (is_notification_mode)
    {
        // Notification button is pressed. Start connectable advertisement.
        connectable_adv_init();
        service_add();
    }
    else
    {
        non_connectable_adv_init();
    }
#endif
    
    advertising_data_init();
    advertising_start();

    // Enter main loop.
    for (;;)
    {
        power_manage();
    }
}

The numbers taken for the IAR were done by someone else, and I don't recall the exact amount of current. The current for the version compiled with gcc was around 200uA.