Linux 5.16 Drops Support For MIPS Netlogic SoCs

The Linux 5.16 kernel is doing away with hardware support for the MIPS-based Netlogic Microsystems SoCs, the network processors developed prior to being acquired by Broadcom a decade ago.

The Linux kernel has supported the more than decade old Netlogic XLR/XLS and XLP processors used in the company's former high-end network gear. However, as no current Linux kernel developers have access to Netlogic hardware and no clear signs there still are users out there with Netlogic SoCs and running up-to-date kernels, that Netlogic Microsystems support is being cleared out from the Linux kernel.

Removing the Netlogic Linux support lightens the kernel by 11.5k lines of code.

Dropping Netlogic support was the main change of the MIPS pull for Linux 5.16. Another item worth mentioning is Linux 5.16 finally printing CPU options for /proc/cpuinfo on MIPS.

Aside from this work, not much else to talk about in terms of upstream MIPS Linux developments with Loongson now focusing on LoongArch and other vendors mostly focusing on RISC-V for new offerings with MIPS architecture development now effectively over.