Date: Sat, 07 Oct 2017 19:06:29 +0000 From: "K. Macy" <kmacy@freebsd.org> To: "A. Wilcox" <AWilcox@wilcox-tech.com>, Mark Linimon <linimon@lonesome.com> Cc: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org, freebsd-sparc64@freebsd.org Subject: Re: future of sparc64 (was: Making C++11 a hard requirement for FreeBSD) Message-ID: <CAHM0Q_PuYhnaiQif0w_0gf_ip6QG0sCmMSFj=2xxq4RT42%2BEmg@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <20171007174124.GA20810@lonesome.com> References: <CANCZdfq5=KRp4NYKsc15gyS9C7CxrBFxcKQLPwnb_0oPb15vJw@mail.gmail.com> <20171005234149.GE8557@spindle.one-eyed-alien.net> <59D6CA6C.1040502@Wilcox-Tech.com> <20171007174124.GA20810@lonesome.com>
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On Sat, Oct 7, 2017 at 10:41 Mark Linimon <linimon@lonesome.com> wrote: > On Thu, Oct 05, 2017 at 07:12:28PM -0500, A. Wilcox wrote: > > That doesn't change the fact that sparc64 still exists, and with Oracle > > laying off Solaris as well, FreeBSD becomes a "way out" for people > > heavily invested (DC full of sparc64 gear, or such). > > I have thought for some time that we've been a "way out" for Solaris > sites wanting to keep ZFS and not deal with licensing issues, and have > worked to keep sparc64 alive. (AFAIK FreeBSD is the only open source > sparc64/zfs solution?) > > But here's the current problem. > > All gccs > 4.9 fail to build. Looking at the logs AFAICT the failure > is a floating-point exception as soon as the first built binary is run > during the internal testing. > > Neither Marcel nor Gerald nor I have any insight on how to fix this. > Gerald does state that those gccs build on other OSes, so this is almost > certainly a FreBSD problem. > > The default ports compiler has recently moved to gcc5 and then again > to gcc6. The only reason gcc49 still exists in the Ports Collection is > specifically for sparc64 ports. > > Recent llvms do not build. I have no insight into that failure, either. > > So, the long and short is, even with using gcc4.2.1 as an external > compiler, over time, fewer and fewer ports build as they adapt to the > newer compilers. > > This is something I don't have the cycles to fix. Unless someone else > can step up and fix the compilers, we're close to the end of feasibility. > > In the meantime, I'll keep running package builds with gcc4.9 as long as > it produces some kind of useful results. My recollection of sparc64 from sun4v work was that unsupported operations would trap in to the kernel which would in turn trap in to a user space handler for floating point emulation. If someone wants to fix it that=E2=80= =99s where to look. I think that FreeBSD needs to always have one big-endian arch and one arch that requires IOMMU. Bonus points if it fulfills both. For a time that was sparc64. These days other arches meet that need. And at this point the most recent hardware supported by the sparc64 port shipped in ~2003. One could amortize the cost of a low end 2017 server in just the power bill within a year. I don=E2=80=99t know how much work continuing to = maintain sparc64 really adds to non sparc64 enthusiasts. Nonetheless, it is non-zero= . -M
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