Linux 4.17 Spring Cleaning To Drop Some Old CPU Architectures

[pal666]

There is less reason to go 64-bit when you only have 256 or 512 MiB of RAM.

amount of ram does not matter. you can't mmap dvd on 32bit

[pal666]

I'm talking of embedded devices, not PC or servers or high-performance stuff. The only reason an embedded device would want 64bit is because of RAM. For anything needing serious processing power they have hardware accelerators anyway.

i already gave you example of 8086. embedded device does not need aslr?

[pal666]

Actually, 64-bit is very old by now as well. When will we get 128-bit? :P (and I mean true 128-bit CPU's for desktops/laptops, not for specialized systems)

each step takes twice amount of time of previous step. jump from 64bit to 128bit is as large as all jumps from 0bit to 64bit combined. so it wouldn't be soon. and just imagine size and cost of heap of 4 billions of 4gb ram sticks. probably after technological singularity

[bridgman]

each step takes twice amount of time of previous step. jump from 64bit to 128bit is as large as all jumps from 0bit to 64bit combined. so it wouldn't be soon. and just imagine size and cost of heap of 4 billions of 4gb ram sticks. probably after technological singularity

Yep... most 64-bit processors are really more like 48-bit from an addressing perspective, although 64-bit from data perspective.

On the other hand, CPU vector instructions are already 128-1024 bit and GPU vector instructions are 1024-4096 bit, so we got your 128-bit right here

[Vistaus]

For what purpose? What practical application is there for a 128 bit CPU that cannot be done with a 64 bit CPU?

IDC if there's a purpose, they will always find something. Just like when they released 8K TV's even though lots of people already have trouble seeing the difference b/w 1080p and 4K. They keep going at it even if it doesn't necessarily improve anything, so I can see them working on 128-bit CPU's as well (in fact, there are a few already for IBM Z systems, for example, so it can be done, it just needs to be ported to consumer stuff).

[jpg44]

it's time to drop all the cpus based on 32bit architecture.

This is not a good idea. There still are a lot of 32 bit computers out there I would bet. The code does not slow down anything for 64 bit CPUs, anyway. They didnt really even need to remove the code for aforementioned architectures as by being their the code doesnt slow down anything else.

[jpg44]

It matters for distros like Ubuntu that ship with every driver known to mankind and every default boot flag.

Drivers should only be loaded once the hardware that needs them is detected, so including them doesnt hurt anything or slow anything down for you. But it is important for people who have hardware that needs that driver. Ubuntu tries and should try to be useful to a broad number of users on a broad number of systems, not to be a minimalistic system that cant run a GUI or wont run on anything except a small number of computers.

[brrrrttttt]

Drivers should only be loaded once the hardware that needs them is detected, so including them doesnt hurt anything or slow anything down for you. But it is important for people who have hardware that needs that driver. Ubuntu tries and should try to be useful to a broad number of users on a broad number of systems, not to be a minimalistic system that cant run a GUI or wont run on anything except a small number of computers.

Yup. If you're looking for a slim, fast distro, then you need something like Arch where you get to pick all the details yourself.

[Vistaus]

Drivers should only be loaded once the hardware that needs them is detected, so including them doesnt hurt anything or slow anything down for you. But it is important for people who have hardware that needs that driver. Ubuntu tries and should try to be useful to a broad number of users on a broad number of systems, not to be a minimalistic system that cant run a GUI or wont run on anything except a small number of computers.

Who was talking about slowing down? I was talking about the kernel size.

[linuxgeex]

It matters for distros like Ubuntu that ship with every driver known to mankind and every default boot flag.

Trying to say this politely and without it coming across as a personal attack... but the above statement describes your ignorance of some really basic facts:

1) Drivers take up no measurable space in memory unless they are needed, because they are loaded as modules.
2) "every default boot flag" - you don't have to enable boot flags for defaults.

My goal here isn't to embarrass you. I just hope that you recognize that you are jumping to conclusions without taking the time to test your hypothesis, and then you are trying to tell others to believe you... well... that is going to result in some embarrassment... it's unavoidable.

For your own sake, I recommend finding some references backing your statements, at least until your habits improve.