From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Feb 6 20:57:06 2014 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [8.8.178.115]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 7A633693 for ; Thu, 6 Feb 2014 20:57:06 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-ig0-f180.google.com (mail-ig0-f180.google.com [209.85.213.180]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-RC4-SHA (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 3868014E8 for ; Thu, 6 Feb 2014 20:57:05 +0000 (UTC) Received: by mail-ig0-f180.google.com with SMTP id m12so508588iga.1 for ; Thu, 06 Feb 2014 12:56:59 -0800 (PST) X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20130820; h=x-gm-message-state:sender:subject:mime-version:content-type:from :in-reply-to:date:cc:content-transfer-encoding:message-id:references :to; bh=jqCbYm/ljfT/zVyIKpzGDrv2pomDG9Sjq1IFr8yR1WY=; b=C4dzXqnY1PB+S+LxsATcvcxTmFk7s2pypDwVewd2bC6Cng6ug6le6mGfJt/2IbzSOV 7aZN0YUuth7tg0wBx0OR8ni2WhRLKgrEDVNgeFloMBNbSmSaPW3bQifeT8WhIqoz5gSf CSC1/PQqPlSmM5wO7RvoA+NW6ebIFO8ZeCAs8yRbHu3bukiS6EDxY9LPqRaBVrehkVTS svF4T5rGVwbBgMsEdhuGTFRSSPbMAQtYAgIL3QSPBGPa3RH7FzdWjhQ7/wJ+hOSAQpyO r2oRFRd57ZCrjVGZWLHEELtbrcE+1uVbtnWuvq6Kjtn1i8MP8L2rf9PYpfluF1RTDVZm WPHw== X-Gm-Message-State: ALoCoQmvDXRKsvvBkoOFvicGweJHoUWdpUdgL/EZFWo1x7lFto305VDB1m1GXsmVbMrbXnmtb6Ov X-Received: by 10.42.232.206 with SMTP id jv14mr1007443icb.52.1391720219664; Thu, 06 Feb 2014 12:56:59 -0800 (PST) Received: from monkey-bot.int.fusionio.com ([209.117.142.2]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPSA id qb3sm2166907igb.7.2014.02.06.12.56.58 for (version=TLSv1 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-RC4-SHA bits=128/128); Thu, 06 Feb 2014 12:56:58 -0800 (PST) Sender: Warner Losh Subject: Re: opteron a1100 arm Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v1085) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii From: Warner Losh In-Reply-To: Date: Thu, 6 Feb 2014 13:56:54 -0700 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Message-Id: References: <1391538649.19169.79261269.3C5F49D1@webmail.messagingengine.com> <493DEB39-C4B4-409E-B8B2-B1B11E013754@netgate.com> <60555.1391549390@critter.freebsd.dk> <23B18B88-D888-46B3-99F6-905F86E20FAF@netgate.com> , <52F2461B.1070405@m5p.com> To: Kamil Choudhury X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1085) Cc: "freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org" , George Mitchell X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.17 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 06 Feb 2014 20:57:06 -0000 On Feb 5, 2014, at 7:34 AM, Kamil Choudhury wrote: >=20 > George wrote:=20 >> This discussion is very entertaining. But let's not lose sight of = the >> main point: ARM processors are not going away. It is to FreeBSD's >> detriment if we don't have Tier 1 support for a processor that, by = some >> guesses, already comprises the majority of new installations by = count. >=20 > Moving on to specifics, what concrete steps would be necessary to = actually=20 > get FreeBSD support for this architecture?=20 You'll need a new pmap for arm, and a bunch of other things. Plus you'll = need to get ACPI working on arm64, and you may also need FDT + ACPI = coexistence depending on your development route. Plus you'll need arm64 = (aarch64) support in llvm and/or some external toolchain (which would = mean you'd need to beef up the external toolchain support for freebsd's = build). And then you'll need new drivers. And people to test it and = hammer it and fix the stability issues that pop up. And that's not even = considering the issues with pkg support etc. It is a heavy lift to get all the way there, although a 'hack' port that = gets to single user with a ram-disk or nfs root and a serial port = working wouldn't be too hard. So it's like Ian said: we need bodies working on this... So far, I'm = only aware of one part timer. Warner