On Saturday 19 Nov 2011, Ben Hutchings wrote: > The i386 architecture was the first in Linux and in Debian, but we have > long since dropped support for the original i386-compatible processors > and now require a minimum of a 486-class processor. > > I think it is time to increase the minimum requirement to 586-class, if > not for wheezy then immediately after. (Later it should be increased > further, and eventually i386 should be reduced to a partial architecture > that may be installed on amd64 systems.) This would allow the use of > optimisations and new instructions throughout userland that improve > performance for the vast majority of users. > > The 486-class processors that would no longer be supported are: > 1. All x86 processors with names including '486' > 2. AMD Am5x86 > 3. Cyrix/IBM/ST 5x86, 6x86 and MediaGX > 4. UMC U5D and U5S > 5. AMD/NSC Geode GX1, Geode SC1100, Elan SC4xx and SC5xx I am still running a bunch of systems with SC1100 processors on them. They are (and always have been) running off the shelf Debian kernels and I would much rather keep it that way.
David > Also possibly: > 6. DM&P/SiS Vortex86 and Vortex86SX. These supposedly have all > 586-class features except an FPU, and we could probably keep FPU > emulation for them. > > So far as I know, all processors in groups 1-5 have been out of > production for several years. Soekris still advertises boards using the > Geode SC1100 and Elan SC520, but they seem quite uncompetitive with > ARM-based systems and at least the SC1100-based products are being > EOL'd. > > Starting from version 2.6.24 or earlier (early 2008), Debian '486' > kernel packages had a bug that caused them to crash on boot on 486-class > processors, but this was not reported until early 2009 (#511703), > suggesting that there were few users with such systems. Debian 7.0 > 'wheezy' should be released in late 2012 or early 2013 and in the > intervening 4 years the numbers of running systems with such a processor > will have declined still further. > > Ben. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-kernel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/201111201010.21696.david.goodeno...@btconnect.com
