Raspberry Pi Begins Rolling Out The Linux 4.19 Kernel

[starshipeleven]

Raspberry pi support has been better than most smarthpones*, it still sucks. If the RPI foundation goes under who is going to support our devices? People love throwing things in the trash. Recycling is the major problem especially in "underdeveloped" countries which is what the raspberry pi targeted in the first place!

underdeveloped countries are using the cheaper clones based on Allwinner SoCs. Sunxi project managed to get better support for Allwinner devboards than raspi foundation did.

[starshipeleven]

I haven’t been following PI development so I’m not sure what is going into that. However the sooner they move to 64 but the sooner they reap the long term benefits. That means a 32 bit solution and a 64 bit solution will have to be in play for a long time. I sorta understand 32 bit on older hardware but the reality is a good portion of the rest of the Linux world is solidly 64 bit.

32bit on ARM isn't even "older hardware". It's still in production and will still be for a long while. Many 64bit SoCs don't have more than 2GB of RAM anyway and their firmware is still developed as 32bit images.

Please don't confuse 32bit ARM with 32bit x86

[brent]

I haven’t been following PI development so I’m not sure what is going into that. However the sooner they move to 64 but the sooner they reap the long term benefits. That means a 32 bit solution and a 64 bit solution will have to be in play for a long time. I sorta understand 32 bit on older hardware but the reality is a good portion of the rest of the Linux world is solidly 64 bit.

What benefits? ARMv7 is still very common. This isn't the same as on the PC. ARM embedded computers aren't solid on 64-bit, not even close.

The Raspberry Pi 4 is going to break compatibility anyway, in more than one way. So the logical point to switch to aarch64 completely is the Raspberry Pi 4.

[danmcgrew]

Vague References Do Not Make It So.
********************************
@ #5--

"...Pi 4 is said to be very different to 1/2/3,.."

Really? "...said..." ? By whom? And where and when?

Please provide ANY and ALL details as to where you have gotten ANY credible details on this mythical device, which a lot of people like to reference as if it were fact, a fait accompli.

Vague references and wishful thinking do not make it so. Give us hard facts, please.

[DrYak]

Recycling is the major problem especially in "underdeveloped" countries which is what the raspberry pi targeted in the first place!

Huh... nope. The Raspberry Pi was targeted for UK Schools to begin with.
The point of the device was to be as cheap as possible to enable student to get acquainted with computers in a way that hasn't been possible since 8bit micro computers fell out.
The incredible success it had everywhere else (makers/hackers {RPi are basically the new Arduino but on steroids}, developing world {RPi is basically the success that OLPC never managed to achieve} , etc.) has been a happy surprise.

I sorta understand 32 bit on older hardware but the reality is a good portion of the rest of the Linux world is solidly 64 bit.

Not in embed world. There are plenty of 32bits of ARMs out there.
The Raspberry Pi have only had aarch64 support since version 1.2 of the RPi 2.

Also there aren't *that* many benefits to reap: the address bus of the SoC is limited to 1GiB (of which the Broadcom Core can only see 512MiB anyway). So even if the ARM core support Aarch64, it will never be physically able to use more memory than 1GiB (unless something much more complicated like banking is implemented, which is completely beyond the scope of a SBC which aims at a maximum cost of 35$).

But from what I get (I don't have extensive experience writing ARM assembly...) ARMv6/7 only allow access for user-land software to 16 registers, whereas AArch64 gives access to 32, so there's potential to fit more computation on register without needing to push to stack/RAM, so some performance could be possible.

[torsionbar28]

What is an "underdeveloped" country?

[jwh7]

Also there aren't *that* many benefits to reap: the address bus of the SoC is limited to 1GiB (of which the Broadcom Core can only see 512MiB anyway). So even if the ARM core support Aarch64, it will never be physically able to use more memory than 1GiB (unless something much more complicated like banking is implemented, which is completely beyond the scope of a SBC which aims at a maximum cost of 35$).

Aarch64 on Linux doesn't have the memory usage increase as with Windows x64 memory addressing...
Reference: "64-bit ARM (Aarch64) Instructions Boost Performance by 15 to 30% Compared to 32-bit ARM (Aarch32) Instructions"

[caligula]

underdeveloped countries are using the cheaper clones based on Allwinner SoCs. Sunxi project managed to get better support for Allwinner devboards than raspi foundation did.

Allwinner doesn't really offer the kind of support RPi users expect. Does it run desktop Windows 10 like RPi? Can you do IoT development from the browser or run Scratch? Are those boards as capable as routers (pihole), media centers (OpenELEC / LibreELEC), gaming consoles (RetroPie / Lakka) ? Do their kernels support RPi CEC and GPIO libraries?

[danmcgrew]

What is an "underdeveloped" country?

Tried to buy any general-purpose electronics or electronic devices designed and made--not designed, but designed and made--in the U.S.A. in the last twenty years? Have any idea of how bad the enrolment situation is in the nation's top science and engineering schools by actual students from the U.S.?
The U.S. is an "underdeveloped" country--and heading for the distinction of being an UNDEVELOPED country. The only thing we make are loans to consumers so that they can 'buy more stuff'. From the developed countries, of course.

Our most impressive technical abilities are everyone's carrying a 'smart'phone (which the majority don't know how to use), the use of Chromebooks (which, of course, makes one 'cool'), and (according to polls) the absolute need to pay phone charges rather than for frivolous items like food, so that Facebook can be continually accessed.

Need any other definition of an "underdeveloped" country? How about "underdeveloped-and too-stupid-to -realize-it's-just-getting-worse" country?

[...and if you take offense at this post, you are a very serious part of the problem. Go buy a Chromebook; the newest $1500 "smart"phone, and get another loan. And feel good about it.]

[caligula]

Tried to buy any general-purpose electronics or electronic devices designed and made--not designed, but designed and made--in the U.S.A. in the last twenty years? Have any idea of how bad the enrolment situation is in the nation's top science and engineering schools by actual students from the U.S.?
The U.S. is an "underdeveloped" country--and heading for the distinction of being an UNDEVELOPED country. The only thing we make are loans to consumers so that they can 'buy more stuff'. From the developed countries, of course.

Well, for years most western countries have considered the manufacturing as an expendable minor chore. Everyone can build 7nm production plants these days. It takes a genius to come up with Slack. Besides it's obvious U.S.A. isn't an underdeveloped country. If it were, people would buy Allwinner products instead.