Linus Torvalds wrote:
> That's no problem if we make this SMP-specific - I doubt anybody actually
> uses SMP on i486's even if the machines exist, as I think they all had
> special glue logic that Linux would have trouble with anyway. But the
> advantages of being able to use one generic kernel that works on plain UP
> i386 machines as well as SMP P6+ machines is big enough that I would want
> to be able to say "CONFIG_X86_GENERIC" + "CONFIG_SMP".
(slight tangent)
FWIW I think the i386 CPU selection logic in make config should be
reconsidered in 2.5+...
The alpha presents you with a list of platforms, and allows you to
select a specific one, or a generic option that includes all platforms.
The current way of doing things on x86 -- essentially selecting a
minimal level of CPU support -- is nice for vendors like Mandrake who
drops support for older CPUs. But it isn't nice for the case where a
user wants support for their specific processor and no other. I have a
P-II, why include code that only works on K7 or P-III? The embedded
people, I think, would find such a change useful too.
The only problem with an alpha-like configuration is that Mandrake
cannot select a minimum CPU level of support anymore... I guess that
could be solved by an "advanced" sub-menu, similar to that which is
found in drivers/video/Config.in, which allows fine-grained Y/N
selections of CPU support.
-- Jeff Garzik | Sam: "Mind if I drive?" Building 1024 | Max: "Not if you don't mind me clawing at the dash MandrakeSoft | and shrieking like a cheerleader." - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Apr 15 2001 - 21:00:14 EST