On Wed, Jun 16, 2021 at 11:02:23PM +0200, Fabio Valentini wrote: > On Wed, Jun 16, 2021 at 9:52 PM Benjamin Beasley > <c...@musicinmybrain.net> wrote: > > > > At the risk of overextending an already well-elaborated thread, I would > > like to point out that my main workstation, for Fedora packaging and other > > purposes, has an Intel Q6600 (Core 2 Quad) that does NOT meet the > > requirements for x86_64-v2. I built it in 2007, and it has exceeded all > > expectations for how long it would remain useful. The desktop I maintain > > for my parents uses an AMD Phenom II X4 965 processor, circa 2009-2010, and > > it doesn’t support x86_64-v2 either—but it just keeps on working. > > > > Now, I can afford to replace my own workstation if I must—and I’m planning > > to do so in another year or two when the rolling component shortages settle > > out a little—but I suspect there are still many others like me, some of > > whom might not be in a position to just sigh and buy new hardware. Even for > > those who can, the pandemic and the crypto crazes have made it an > > exceptionally bad time to be forced into an upgrade. > > So ... maybe the following approach would be a way forward that would > benefit everybody (TM): > > 1. stay with x86-64-baseline for Fedora for now (performance critical > software often has runtime CPU feature detection and dynamic dispatch > anyway) > 2. identify "performance sensitive" libraries in Fedora that do not > have runtime CPU feature detection, and which would benefit from > having the instructions that are added with x86-64-v2 available (looks > like the the performance benefit of enabling this overall is small > (?), but maybe there are exceptions, where bumping from x86-64 to > x86-64-v2 would make a bigger difference for some library) > 3. make it easy to build the libraries identified under 2. twice (or > three times, with x86-64-v3?) and install them in the locations where > the loader can find them (leveraging the new HWCAPS functionality)
A good idea. But in that case it'd make sense to raise the bar quite a bit higher, and e.g. compile specifically for modern Intel CPUs and e.g. AMD Ryzen. If we don't have to make the baseline acceptable to everyone, we should make a big jump. Zbyszek > This approach would allow older machines to continue to run the latest > Fedora just fine, while libraries that *would* benefit from more > available CPU instructions would run faster for the people who have > newer hardware. _______________________________________________ devel mailing list -- devel@lists.fedoraproject.org To unsubscribe send an email to devel-le...@lists.fedoraproject.org Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/devel@lists.fedoraproject.org Do not reply to spam on the list, report it: https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure
