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Date:      Wed, 12 Dec 2018 17:11:43 -0700
From:      Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com>
To:        Mori Hiroki <yamori813@yahoo.co.jp>
Cc:        "freebsd-mips@freebsd.org" <freebsd-mips@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: MIPS future...
Message-ID:  <CANCZdfrfiR8=hd2nZsh1kuH6t_nbrdk=VHESZ4nzW-ZH2WfO-g@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <367298.45441.qm@web103901.mail.ssk.yahoo.co.jp>
References:  <CANCZdfpK5mPDDgpJ5PVhXF7-MixSouW8mAKkWQcaRnmYW%2Bpy0g@mail.gmail.com> <CANCZdfq8PMDdnEnBeBsQ-evJph9Bf1P-gp3v3DYzeUWHV5FOAw@mail.gmail.com> <367298.45441.qm@web103901.mail.ssk.yahoo.co.jp>

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On Wed, Dec 12, 2018 at 3:53 PM Mori Hiroki <yamori813@yahoo.co.jp> wrote:

>
>
> Hi
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> >From: Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com>
> >To: "freebsd-mips@freebsd.org" <freebsd-mips@freebsd.org>
> >Date: 2018/12/13, Thu 07:15
> >Subject: Re: MIPS future...
> >
> >On Wed, Dec 12, 2018 at 11:15 AM Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com> wrote:
> >
> >> OK. To be a good player in the FreeBSD ecosystem, we need to do  a few
> >> things.
> >>
> >> First, we need to implement atomic_swap_64. hps did this for mips64 and
> >> committed it. He sent me some further patches for it that I need to
> commit
> >> when I get a change, maybe at the airport tonight.
> >>
> >> But this brings up a couple of issues I'd like to bring up.
> >>
> >> First, to implement atomic_swap_64 on mips-32 is hard. In that it's not
> >> just the canonical ldd/sdd sequence because those aren't available
> there.
> >> We can do the standard trick of reading STATUS0, clearing IE, storing
> it,
> >> do the operation and then restoring STATUS0. This is efficient enough
> for
> >> the use in the kernel for the supported cores we have.
> >>
> >> With two exceptions. First is running 32-bit kernels on 64-bit hardware.
> >> We deprecated that with Octeon because of the weird hacks we needed to
> do
> >> too make it work. I'd like to universally deprecate this. There's little
> >> benefit and a real cost to doing this. I'd like to remove the SWARM_SMP,
> >> XLP, and GXEMUL32 (or at least remove the smp option).
> >>
> >> But there's JZ4780. It's a legit mips32 + SMP. It's on Image Creator's
> >> CI20. This was released in Nov 2014 with a refresh in March 2015. This
> is a
> >> dead-end product line (there's no new cores and none new that I can
> find).
> >> This was a RPi competitor, but it was slower, less capable and more
> >> expensive so it's kinda rare now. I'd say we need to de-support this
> >> device. I know of only one user, and he's not responded to my email. I
> >> think 12 will have to be the last release we have this in. Today, the
> only
> >> affect is for some drivers that can't run on this platform, but the
> writing
> >> is on the wall.
> >>
> >> That brings me to my next question: SWARM. Can we kill SWARM entirely?
> >> It's for the BCM1250 part, released in sometime before 2000. It was
> super
> >> popular because it was the reference for a ton of things that followed.
> I
> >> think it's run is over and we can remove it. I can find no users of it
> in
> >> the nyc dmesg database. Mine has been in a plastic bag since before my
> sone
> >> was born in 2006... So I'm thinking we can remove this platform. It was
> on
> >> the edge last time I did a GC in mips-land.
> >>
> >> And then there's the even larger question: how many people are still
> using
> >> mips32? It looks like a fair number, maybe, but I have no idea for
> sure, so
> >> if you do, please provide feedback on the platforms you are running
> FreeBSD
> >> 11 or newer on.
> >>
> >
> >There's one last issue this brings up. When writing the above code, I
> >discovered I could use the non-racy DI instruction. However, that was
> >introduced with mips32r2. This was defined in 2002 and gear appeared in
> the
> >market 2004 or 2005. I believe that all supported SoCs have mips32r2.
> SWARM
> >doesn't, which is another reason to kill it: it's getting in the way and
> >providing no benefit. Would anybody object to the minimum ISA being raised
> >to mips32r2 for all 32-bit mips platforms?
> >
> >Warner
> >_______________________________________________
> >freebsd-mips@freebsd.org mailing list
> >https://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-mips
> >To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-mips-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"
> >
> >
> >
>
> mips32 is called by 4K
> mips32r2 is called by 24K
>
> In current FreeBSD mips support at 4K is Rakink RT2880 and Atheros
> AR531x. Ralink RT3050 later and Newer Atheros is 24K or 74K.
>

OK. That's good to know. The AR531x boards generally are under-provisioned
for memory, and somewhat slow. The RT2880 appears to be in the same class.
I'd be quite surprised if anybody could do anything non-trivial with those
boards.

Also Broadcom BCM4712 and BCM5354 is 4K but it's still hangup. Last
> Broadcom MIPS soc that is BCM4718 and BCM5357 is 74K.
>

So the older SENTRY5 chips, which weren't all that common, but which are
definitely mips4k chips. They are only a little better than the AR531x
chips. The newer BCM stuff still looks relevant. Thanks for the pointers.

I have question. Can do generate 24K code by gcc 4.2.1 and binutils?
>

I think that adding the following to the config file
makeoptions ARCH_FLAGS="-march=mips32r2"
comes close. You may need too add -EL if it's little endian.

The only other config file tagged MIPS4k is GXEMUL, which may have run its
useful lifetime in FreeBSD as well.

Warner

P.S. I'll post a summary of the implications of mips32"r1" removal if
there's any opposition.



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