Matt Thomas | 31 Jul 2012 16:42

Is it time to deprecate arm26 support (for NetBSD 7.0?


I think the gain is just not worth it.

Any acorn26 users out there....

Jun Ebihara | 1 Aug 2012 02:17
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Re: Is it time to deprecate arm26 support (for NetBSD 7.0?

Hi Matt,

From: Matt Thomas <matt <at> 3am-software.com>
Subject: Is it time to deprecate arm26 support (for NetBSD 7.0?
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2012 07:42:43 -0700

> I think the gain is just not worth it.
> Any acorn26 users out there....

kiyohara <at>  's BBC A3000:
http://movapic.com/pic/201111201146094ec869f10e10e

at 
http://www.NetBSD.org/gallery/events.html#opensourceconf2011-tokyofall

--
Jun Ebihara

David Brownlee | 1 Aug 2012 10:01
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Re: Is it time to deprecate arm26 support (for NetBSD 7.0?

On 1 August 2012 01:17, Jun Ebihara <jun <at> soum.co.jp> wrote:
> Hi Matt,
>
> From: Matt Thomas <matt <at> 3am-software.com>
> Subject: Is it time to deprecate arm26 support (for NetBSD 7.0?
> Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2012 07:42:43 -0700
>
>> I think the gain is just not worth it.
>> Any acorn26 users out there....
>
> kiyohara <at>  's BBC A3000:
> http://movapic.com/pic/201111201146094ec869f10e10e
>
> at
> http://www.NetBSD.org/gallery/events.html#opensourceconf2011-tokyofall

Is the rationale be that maintaining acorn26 adds additional
maintenance effort for other arm ports, or that compiling code
compatible with ARMv2 compromises the performance on newer CPUs?

Would it make sense to split the arm ports into 'current' and 'legacy'
by architecture and pick a new minimum architecture (ARMv6?) for the
current ports. It could also be a good point to make any ABI
changes...

Richard Earnshaw (home | 3 Aug 2012 00:44
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Re: Is it time to deprecate arm26 support (for NetBSD 7.0?


On 1 Aug 2012, at 09:01, David Brownlee <abs <at> netbsd.org> wrote:

> Would it make sense to split the arm ports into 'current' and 'legacy'
> by architecture and pick a new minimum architecture (ARMv6?) for the
> current ports. It could also be a good point to make any ABI
> changes...

An EABI conforming port with hard float sounds like a good proposition for use with modern hw.

R.
Matt Thomas | 3 Aug 2012 00:53

Re: Is it time to deprecate arm26 support (for NetBSD 7.0?


On Aug 2, 2012, at 3:44 PM, Richard Earnshaw (home) wrote:

> 
> On 1 Aug 2012, at 09:01, David Brownlee <abs <at> netbsd.org> wrote:
> 
>> Would it make sense to split the arm ports into 'current' and 'legacy'
>> by architecture and pick a new minimum architecture (ARMv6?) for the
>> current ports. It could also be a good point to make any ABI
>> changes...
> 
> An EABI conforming port with hard float sounds like a good proposition for use with modern hw.

What is the earliest commonly available arm with a hard VFP that 
was available that is compatible with armv6/v7 compatible VFP's?

I was thinking adding a machine arch of "armless" for those
pre that "first VPF compatible arm".  And making arm reflect
newer hardware.
Richard Earnshaw (home | 3 Aug 2012 08:39
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Re: Is it time to deprecate arm26 support (for NetBSD 7.0?


On 2 Aug 2012, at 23:53, Matt Thomas <matt <at> 3am-software.com> wrote:

> 
> On Aug 2, 2012, at 3:44 PM, Richard Earnshaw (home) wrote:
> 
>> 
>> On 1 Aug 2012, at 09:01, David Brownlee <abs <at> netbsd.org> wrote:
>> 
>>> Would it make sense to split the arm ports into 'current' and 'legacy'
>>> by architecture and pick a new minimum architecture (ARMv6?) for the
>>> current ports. It could also be a good point to make any ABI
>>> changes...
>> 
>> An EABI conforming port with hard float sounds like a good proposition for use with modern hw.
> 
> What is the earliest commonly available arm with a hard VFP that 
> was available that is compatible with armv6/v7 compatible VFP's?
> 
> I was thinking adding a machine arch of "armless" for those
> pre that "first VPF compatible arm".  And making arm reflect
> newer hardware.

VFP was first introduced with v5, but there are very few chips of that era that used it.

Advanced SIMD (Neon) wasn't added until v7; though that shares the hard float ABI.  Thumb2 was also
effectively only available from v7.

Apart from Debian, many of the Linux distros are now targeting v7+VFP as their baseline.

(Continue reading)

josemaria.perez | 2 Aug 2012 12:04
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Re: Is it time to deprecate arm26 support (for NetBSD 7.0?

Two Archimedes.

Chema.

Con fecha 1/8/2012, "Jun Ebihara" <jun <at> soum.co.jp> escribió:

>Hi Matt,
>
>From: Matt Thomas <matt <at> 3am-software.com>
>Subject: Is it time to deprecate arm26 support (for NetBSD 7.0?
>Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2012 07:42:43 -0700
>
>> I think the gain is just not worth it.
>> Any acorn26 users out there....
>
>kiyohara <at>  's BBC A3000:
>http://movapic.com/pic/201111201146094ec869f10e10e
>
>at
>http://www.NetBSD.org/gallery/events.html#opensourceconf2011-tokyofall
>
>--
>Jun Ebihara


Gmane