> GCC stopped generating unaligned word 
> accesses of any kind on ARM in gcc-3.4.  This is to ensure that code built 
> for legacy cpus will continue to work correctly on v6 devices which 
> support traditional unaligned memory access semantics.

And the C compiler changes tactics to integer access when "stronger
optimisation flag" is specified.  The compiler uses corner case instruction
which is sometimes incompatible extension for various ARM.  If changing
O flag brings different results, it's likely inappropriate compile condition.

Toru Nishimura/ALKYL Technology