Way back when in February [1], FESCo decided that for Fedora 11, i586 would be the default architecture, and for Fedora 12, it would be some variant of i686. It's time to follow through on that action item.
I've submitted https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/F12X86Support. It defines the default arch as i686 + SSE2. Why? - Faster and more consistent FP math by using SSE2 registers - Allows for autovectorization by GCC where necessary - More clearly delineates our support set of targets, sticking true to forwards innovation, not necessarily legacy support What CPUs do we lose that F11 supports? - Intel i586 (all) - Intel Pentium Pro - Intel Pentium II - Intel Pentium III - 32-bit AMD Athlon - AMD Geode - VIA C3 - Transmeta Crusoe Does this lose the PAE/non-PAE kernel split? - Alas, no. Will a Fedora rebuilt in this manner work on ... - OLPC 1.0? No. - OLPC 1.5? Yes. - Atom? Yes. A seconday arch could be done for these older CPUs, if someone is interested enough. Comments? Flames? Predictions of doom? Bill [1] http://bpepple.fedorapeople.org/fesco/FESCo-2009-02-05.html -- fedora-devel-list mailing list fedora-devel-list@redhat.com https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-devel-list