Ubuntu 13.04 Aims For 64-bit ARM Support (AArch64)

With Ubuntu 13.04 there will likely be an AArch64 (64-bit ARM) spin of the popular Linux distribution.

Aside from the Ubuntu 13.04 talk, on a similar note were discussions about an Ubuntu 13.04 AArch64 spin / AArch64 package archive for this next-generation ARM architecture.

With AArch64 support merged into the Linux 3.7 kernel and AArch64 coming to the GCC 4.8 compiler, there isn't much Canonical is doing upstream for supporting 64-bit ARM but rather leveraging this new code to be found in Ubuntu 13.04 plus the work that's continuing to be done by Linaro and the ARM SoC vendors.

It's not expected that there will be ARM 64-bit images for actual hardware devices in Ubuntu 13.04 but rather will serve as a Versatile Express target for running 64-bit ARM via an emulated (QEMU) environment. ARM 64-bit processors aren't expected to be on the market until 2014 but an Ubuntu 13.04 Versatile Express target will allow software developers to begin working on 64-bit ARM support for their software.