From owner-freebsd-alpha@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Aug 2 02:16:05 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-alpha@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8E84A106564A for ; Sat, 2 Aug 2008 02:16:05 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jhb@freebsd.org) Received: from server.baldwin.cx (bigknife-pt.tunnel.tserv9.chi1.ipv6.he.net [IPv6:2001:470:1f10:75::2]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2D6018FC20 for ; Sat, 2 Aug 2008 02:16:05 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jhb@freebsd.org) Received: from localhost.corp.yahoo.com (john@localhost [IPv6:::1]) (authenticated bits=0) by server.baldwin.cx (8.14.2/8.14.2) with ESMTP id m722Fwlk053951; Fri, 1 Aug 2008 22:15:58 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from jhb@freebsd.org) From: John Baldwin To: freebsd-alpha@freebsd.org Date: Fri, 1 Aug 2008 22:15:52 -0400 User-Agent: KMail/1.9.7 References: <200808012147.VAA21718@sopwith.solgatos.com> In-Reply-To: <200808012147.VAA21718@sopwith.solgatos.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-15" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200808012215.52961.jhb@freebsd.org> X-Greylist: Sender succeeded SMTP AUTH authentication, not delayed by milter-greylist-2.0.2 (server.baldwin.cx [IPv6:::1]); Fri, 01 Aug 2008 22:15:59 -0400 (EDT) X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.93.1/7914/Fri Aug 1 19:16:25 2008 on server.baldwin.cx X-Virus-Status: Clean X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.5 required=4.2 tests=AWL,BAYES_00,NO_RELAYS autolearn=ham version=3.1.3 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.3 (2006-06-01) on server.baldwin.cx Cc: Subject: Re: future for FBSD on alpha X-BeenThere: freebsd-alpha@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting FreeBSD to the Alpha List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 02 Aug 2008 02:16:05 -0000 On Friday 01 August 2008 09:47:30 am Dieter wrote: > > Alpha support is gone from the cvs (well.. svn now) repository for anything > > newer than RELENG_6. If you follow the cvs/svn commit messages you will > > have seen that. > > Do you mean that someone took the time to go through and edit out > support for Alpha? Yes. I did the actual deed in the kernel. I am an Alpha fan myself and have worked on it in the past (it was the first arch besides i386 to get SMPng support for example, and I worked on the DMA issues and got them fixed (I believe) just in time for 6.3). However, many other developers were not willing to expend effort on updating Alpha bits. It didn't help that they couldn't get people to test changes (such as changes to the Linux compat stuff and no one on alpha@ would test the patches). Also, the DMA issues on 6.x with ata(4) basically killed the Alpha ports cluster (that and some hardware issues). Due to all of these things Alpha was retired from 7.0-CURRENT. -- John Baldwin