On Fri, Jul 1, 2016 at 3:44 PM, Charl Wentzel <charl.went...@vodamail.co.za> wrote: > > > On 01/07/2016 21:05, Bryan Quigley wrote: > > Can you elaborate on what specific systems you are purchasing today > that use 32-bit x86 (I believe the only vendors ever were AMD, Intel > and VIA)? > > The chipsets are mostly AMD and Intel as you've stated. The vendor I > purchase from mostly is iEi. They have a huge variety of form factors and > chipsets, mostly AMD and Intel. Popular 32-bit systems include Intel Atom > and AMD Geode. > I have used some weird ones like the eBox that uses the DM&P Vortex86DX CPU, > but you can no longer run Ubuntu on this anyway, because the architecture is > too old.
From what I can tell these are almost all 64-bit capable: http://www.ieishop.com/Embedded-System/For-3-5-Series.cfm which use either a Intel® Atom™ D525, D425, N455, or D2550. Of the ruggedized machines, this one:http://www.ieishop.com/Embedded-System/Rugged-Solutions/Rugged-Solutions-20130009.cfm uses 2nd Core generation which appears to all be 64-bit too. Lastly in ruggedized, the Intel® Atom™ Processor E3845 is also 64-bit capable. I didn't think we supported AMD Geode on Ubuntu anymore from my experience with a OLPC XO (maybe last worked in 10.04?), but they definitely do sell them. What Ubuntu version do you run on the Geode? I've only found one Intel atom they sell that is 32-bit only: http://www.ieishop.com/Single-Board-Computing/Embedded-Board/5-25-Series/5-25-Series-20092119.cfm using the N270. Did I miss any that you are using - or is the N270 the only one remaining? > Also what is your usual expected EOL for these systems? > > I'll have to find out about EOL, but they'll continue to produce the systems > for as long as the chips are available. So I guess the question is rather > for how much longer AMD and Intel will produce 32-bit chipsets. > In the field these systems can keep running for 10+ years even in harsh > environments because they are designed for industrial conditions. However, > once installed the operating system is seldom upgraded as its usually pretty > hard to get to the devices and upgrades often bring unwanted problems, e.g. > incompatibilities, removed packages, dropped support for devices or changes > to the file system structure. So I only use LTS editions and allow for > security updates, at least that provides 3-5 years of OS security. > > Dropped support for older architectures and hardware is a problem I run into > more and more. Even things like dropping support for the alternative > install CD created problems for me. I have considered switching to another > flavor of Linux that still supports older architectures, but the convenience > of Ubuntu makes it hard to switch. The new Snappy packages might make life > a little easier again, but I haven't tried it yet. Fortunately, embedded > systems seldom require GUI front-ends and web interfaces are preferred, so > Server Edition still provides everything I need. > > Please don't forget the Edubuntu projects. Dropping support for 32-bit PCs > could severely affect many of these community upliftment projects. The survey I'm running seems to cover machines being re-purposed pretty well. Several recyclers have responded with the percentage of 32 vs 64 bit machines and interesting details to be learned from that. Edubuntu specifically has other issues and did not have any release for 16.04. See: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/edubuntu-devel/2016-March/003884.html Thanks! Bryan -- Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss
