Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2025 18:16:16 +0100 From: Robert Clausecker <fuz@fuz.su> To: Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com> Cc: "freebsd-arch@freebsd.org" <arch@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: What's the plan for powerpc64 in FreeBSD 16 Message-ID: <aRtYYFPhD1lzQP3G@fuz.su> In-Reply-To: <CANCZdfrQthqYeGYD_9LRcH94JJZuF2%2BUxAqf7Lcoe6p5VzJf9g@mail.gmail.com> References: <CANCZdfrQthqYeGYD_9LRcH94JJZuF2%2BUxAqf7Lcoe6p5VzJf9g@mail.gmail.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Hello Warner, Am Mon, Nov 17, 2025 at 09:57:57AM -0700 schrieb Warner Losh: > Greetings, > > As we're getting close to the release date for FreeBSD 15.0, it's time to > take stock of another architectures. This time, I'd like your feedback on > the following plans. > > We'd like to retire powerpc64 and powerpc64le just before the FreeBSD > stable/16 branch. > > This would give powerpc64 another two years of support in main, followed by > sustaining support on stable/14 and stable/15 until the end of those > branches. > > We've come to this point because the port is dwindling and we have a cost > associated with keeping it around. The number of developers has fallen off > so only a couple remain. Issues in powerpc are taking longer and longer to > discover and resolve. The hardware has been a huge source of frustration > for clusteradmin and we've no alternative for developers. There's only a > tiny user base. We have trouble building packages for it. Also, powerpc has > a number of interesting features of the architecture that make it the odd > arch out. > > It's also big endian. While that may seem like a reason to keep it around, > if we really can't support it and we're not actively testing functionality > of the system, then keeping this around actually doesn't help keep us > honest. It just gives us a burden we must bear. > > In my opinion, powerpc64 appears to have already fallen below critical > mass, despite being a sentimental favorite for a number of FreeBSD > developers. As such, I'd like us to consider planning to retire it before > we branch 16. > > My questions today: Are you using this port? How many people are using it? > And what's the installed base? It appears to be somewhat less than that of > either i386 or armv7 based on user surveys and popularity at conferences. > Also, any other comments you might have. I don't mind if powerpc goes the way of the dodo; it should perhaps stay around as a buildworld target for powerpc jails on powerpc64, but it seems way less important than i386 on amd64 or armv7 on aarch64. As for big endian, I do believe it is of value to support at least one big endia platform, just to make sure our code base is endian-agnostic. NetBSD supports aarch64eb, which seems to run fine on some RPi variants, and perhaps it could be possible to add such a platform as Tier 3 to FreeBSD, too. Maybe I'll find some time for it in the future... Yours, Robert Clausecker -- () ascii ribbon campaign - for an encoding-agnostic world /\ - against html email - against proprietary attachments
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?aRtYYFPhD1lzQP3G>