From: John Paul Adrian Glaubitz <glaubitz@physik.fu-berlin.de>
To: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de>
Cc: Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
linux-m68k <linux-m68k@lists.linux-m68k.org>,
Sparc kernel list <sparclinux@vger.kernel.org>,
Linux-sh list <linux-sh@vger.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: Old platforms: bring out your dead
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 2021 18:35:57 +0100 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <ef1dc21f-694b-2433-e1c6-aa121320173e@physik.fu-berlin.de> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CAK8P3a2VW8T+yYUG1pn1yR-5eU4jJXe1+M_ot6DAvfr2KyXCzQ@mail.gmail.com>
Hi Arnd!
(Please let's have this cross-posted for more visibility. I only learned about this
while reading Phoronix news)
> I also looked at non-ARM platforms while preparing for my article. Some of
> these look like they are no longer actively maintained or used, but I'm not
> doing anything about those unless the maintainers would like me to:
>
> * h8300: Steven Rostedt has repeatedly asked about it to be removed
> or fixed in 2020 with no reply. This was killed before in 2013, added back
> in 2015 but has been mostly stale again since 2016
As far as I know, Yoshinori Sato is actively maintaining H8300 support, see:
> https://osdn.net/projects/uclinux-h8/
> * c6x: Added in 2011, this has seen very few updates since, but
> Mark still Acks patches when they come. Like most other DSP platforms,
> the model of running Linux on a DSP appears to have been obsoleted
> by using Linux on ARM with on-chip DSP cores running bare-metal code.
> * sparc/sun4m: A patch for removing 32-bit Sun sparc support (not LEON)
> is currently under review
I don't think this has reached any agreement yet. Multiple people want it to stay.
> * powerpc/cell: I'm the maintainer and I promised to send a patch to remove it.
> it's in my backlog but I will get to it. This is separate from PS3,
> which is actively
> maintained and used; spufs will move to ps3
> * powerpc/chrp (32-bit rs6000, pegasos2): last updated in 2009
I'm still using this. Please keep it.
> * powerpc/amigaone: last updated in 2009
> * powerpc/maple: last updated in 2011
> * m68k/{apollo,hp300,sun3,q40} these are all presumably dead and have not
> seen updates in many years (atari/amiga/mac and coldfire are very much
> alive)
Dito. I have both sun3 and hp300 machines.
> * mips/jazz: last updated in 2007
> * mips/cobalt: last updated in 2010
>
> There might be some value in dropping old CPU support on architectures
> and platforms that are almost exclusively used with more modern CPUs.
> If there are only few users, those can still keep using v5.10 or v5.4 stable
> kernels for a few more years. Again, I'm not doing anything about them,
> except mention them since I did the research.
> These are the oldest one by architecture, and they may have reached
> their best-served-by-date:
>
> * 80486SX/DX: 80386 CPUs were dropped in 2012, and there are
> indications that 486 have no users either on recent kernels.
> There is still the Vortex86 family of SoCs, and the oldest of those were
> 486SX-class, but all the modern ones are 586-class.
> * Alpha 2106x: First generation that lacks some of the later features.
> Since all Alphas are ancient by now, it's hard to tell whether these have
> any fewer users.
I don't see the point in crippling Alpha support. Does this achieve anything?
> * IA64 Merced: first generation Itanium (2001) was quickly replaced by
> Itanium II in 2002.
> * MIPS R3000/TX39xx: 32-bit MIPS-II generation, mostly superseded by
> 64-bit MIPS-III (R4000 and higher) starting in 1991. arch/mips still
> supports these in DECstation and Toshiba Txx9, but it appears that most
> of those machines are of the 64-bit kind. Later MIPS32 such as 4Kc and
> later are rather different and widely used.
> * PowerPC 601 (from 1992) just got removed, later 60x, 4xx, 8xx etc
> are apparently all still used.
> * SuperH SH-2: We discussed removing SH-2 (not J2 or SH-4)
> support in the past, I don't think there were any objections, but
> nobody submitted a patch.
Isn't SH-2 basically J-2? I'm not sure what we would gain here.
> * 68000/68328 (Dragonball): these are less capable than the
> 68020+ or the Coldfire MCF5xxx line and similar to the 68360
> that was removed in 2016.
Adrian
--
.''`. John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
: :' : Debian Developer - glaubitz@debian.org
`. `' Freie Universitaet Berlin - glaubitz@physik.fu-berlin.de
`- GPG: 62FF 8A75 84E0 2956 9546 0006 7426 3B37 F5B5 F913
next parent reply other threads:[~2021-01-10 17:36 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 34+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
[not found] <CAK8P3a2VW8T+yYUG1pn1yR-5eU4jJXe1+M_ot6DAvfr2KyXCzQ@mail.gmail.com>
2021-01-10 17:35 ` John Paul Adrian Glaubitz [this message]
2021-01-10 21:46 ` Old platforms: bring out your dead Sam Ravnborg
2021-01-11 8:05 ` John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
2021-01-11 14:55 ` chase rayfield
2021-01-12 0:26 ` Rob Landley
2021-01-12 0:50 ` chase rayfield
2021-01-12 14:37 ` John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
2021-01-11 18:09 ` Rob Landley
2021-01-11 15:04 ` Gerhard Pircher
2021-01-12 14:44 ` John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
2021-01-12 22:46 ` Linus Walleij
2021-01-13 8:09 ` Rob Landley
2021-01-13 8:21 ` Geert Uytterhoeven
2021-01-13 13:25 ` Rob Landley
2021-01-13 12:02 ` Andy Shevchenko
2021-01-13 8:15 ` Geert Uytterhoeven
2021-01-13 10:39 ` Arnd Bergmann
2021-01-14 3:54 ` New platforms: bring out your dead, was " Finn Thain
2021-01-14 9:41 ` John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
2021-01-14 9:48 ` Geert Uytterhoeven
2021-01-14 21:21 ` Arnd Bergmann
2021-01-14 22:54 ` Undesirable code, was Re: Old platforms etc Finn Thain
2021-01-14 23:09 ` Old platforms: bring out your dead Max Filippov
2021-01-15 8:31 ` Arnd Bergmann
2021-01-13 0:12 ` Old platforms never die, was " Finn Thain
2021-01-16 6:54 ` Rob Landley
2021-01-16 23:22 ` Finn Thain
2021-01-13 11:47 ` Andy Shevchenko
[not found] <CAFr9PX=BV1YFcO_GQWsW3XEo8nndjUwArzW5Fg1fnWzt8fiwGw@mail.gmail.com>
2021-01-11 9:15 ` John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
2021-01-11 9:20 ` Geert Uytterhoeven
2021-01-11 9:26 ` John Paul Adrian Glaubitz
2021-01-11 9:36 ` Geert Uytterhoeven
2021-01-11 9:50 ` Greg Ungerer
2021-01-11 9:42 ` Daniel Palmer
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