On Mon, Oct 14, 2002 at 12:13:52PM -0500, Mark Hatle wrote: > > Bret Indrelee wrote: > > We are trying to wade our way through the various processor choices and > > options available for PPC on Linux. > > > > One of our requirements is to be able to run the same binary image across > > a range of systems. The image can not change just because the processor > > does. > > > > We are currently looking at the 405GPX, 8250, 8245, and PowerQUIC III. > > (I am ONLY speaking of userspace! .. each system will require a custom kernel) > > The 7xx (as well as 74xx if you avoid altivec) and 82xx are all compatable in > userspace. Those CPU families floating point units, the same cache line size > and other commonalities. > > The 405 does not have an FPU.. If you enable the in kernel floating point > emulator it will then be capable of running the same binaries as above.. but > do > to performance, personal preferance and other reasons I do not recommend > running > a non FPU machine with FPU emulation unless you need to.
Working 40x libraries have some errata fixups in them IIRC, so running a complete classic PPC binary chain would have the possibility of exhibiting problems. > (Since we're on the topic) the PowerPC 403, and 8xx lines are binary > compatable > with each other. Similar to the 405 they lack an FPU, but they also use only > half the cacheline size of the above CPUs. This (potentially) makes the libc > incompatable, and many optimizations may not work as intended. > > There is still a question on wether or not the Book E stuff will be user space > compatable with the current 7xx style binaries. I wouldn't hold my breath.. > :P Oh good, another chance to point out that Book E isn't a unifying standard. The current IBM Book E implementation (PPC440) is binary compatible with PPC405. Since 40x was a bastard hybrid of classic and Book E PPC, the 440 looks like a superset as far as userspace instructions. The Mot Book E implementation (e500) could be binary compatible with classic PPCs (perhaps Kumar will speak up on the direction here) except that it doesn't handle FP in a green book manner...well it's a more versatile SIMD implementation anyway. One public mention of some pertinent e500 characteristics is here: http://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2002-07/msg01060.html In theory, one could use kernel FP emulation on e500 when not using SIMD instructions and run classic PPC binaries. In practice, this may not be wise. > If I was building a range of systems that required varying PowerPC CPUs with a > common userspace I would stick to the 82xx/7xx/74xx families today. I'd have to agree with that. Classic PPC core implementations currently offer the broadest selection of userspace binary compatible processors. Regards, -- Matt Porter porter at cox.net This is Linux Country. On a quiet night, you can hear Windows reboot. ** Sent via the linuxppc-embedded mail list. See http://lists.linuxppc.org/
