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Is 32-bit Linux still worth worrying about? It seems that 64-bit CPUs and kernels have been around for a really long time now. (Honest question.)
by bla2 12y ago
Is 32-bit Linux still worth worrying about? It seems that 64-bit CPUs and kernels have been around for a really long time now. (Honest question.)
- creshal 12y agoIntel is still selling (well, trying to…) 32-bit only Atom/Quark CPUs for smartphones and IoT devices. Coincidentally, Android defaults to PIC in newer SDK versions. So there is still a pressure to optimize for IA32+PIC.
- davidgerard 12y agoWe still have embedded 8-bit. Expect embedded 32-bit approximately forever.
- ori_b 12y agoEmbedded 32 bit x86, with the SysV ABI and support for register calling conventions, though? This is specific to i386, as far as I'm aware. And even then, the worst parts of it are only specific to i386 using the same SysV calling conventions -- ARM has PC relative addressing, as do most other processors commonly used in embedded systems. If you have PC-relative addressing, the entire problem goes away.
- wtallis 12y agoYeah, but we all know the embedded 32-bit stuff that's going to be around forever is ARM, not x86.
- creshal 12y agoWe hope it's not going to be x86… I dunno. I still see too many embedded 486/686 clones around for my liking, and Intel is now trying to get into the whole IoT business with x86-32 Quark CPUs.
- SamReidHughes 12y agoSay you want to build flying robots 1/64 of an inch in diameter. Do you want 64-bit CPUs?
- comex 12y agoNo, but you don't want x86 either, at least given anything vaguely resembling today's technology. See, for example, the Michigan Micro-Mote, which is only a few times that size(!) but has ROM and RAM sizes measured in bytes: http://www.ee.columbia.edu/~mgseok/pdfs/phoenix_isscc_dac_design_contest.pdf http://www.ee.columbia.edu/~mgseok/pdfs/phoenix_isscc_dac_de...
- TheSoftwareGuy 12y agoIf you want linux to run in places where hardware is less frequently updated, yes.