Re: [RFC PATCH 0/13] sparc32: sunset sun4m and sun4d

[Kjetil Oftedal]

On 18/12/2020, Sam Ravnborg <sam@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> The sun4m and sun4d based SPARC machines was very popular in the
> 90'ties and was then replaced by the more powerful sparc64
> class of machines.
> Today there is only Gentoo that to my best knowledge supports
> sparc32 and people have moved on to more capable HW.
>
> Cobham Gaisler have variants of the LEON processer that
> runs sparc32 - and they are in production today.
>
> With this patchset I propose to sunset sun4m and sun4d and move
> focus to a more streamlined support for LEON.
>
> One downside is that qemu supports sun4m - and we may loose
> some testing possibilities when sun4m is dropped. qemu supports
> LEON to some degree - I have not yet tried it out.
>
> Andreas from Gaisler have indicated that they may be more active
> upstream on sparc32 - and this will only be easier with a kernel
> where the legacy stuff is dropped.
>

This makes me a bit sad. But I guess I haven't had any time to put
into the sparc32 port
for many years, so I guess it is time to let go.

But I do believe that by doing this we should make sure we are not
putting ourselves
in a position where the sparc kernel-developers don't have access to
any real sparc32
hardware.

SUN machines were at least plentiful. The LEON-family of processors
being targeted
towards the rad-hardened market are not so much available.

Maybe Gaisler can contribute some systems, or make some available remotely?

Best regards,
Kjetil Oftedal