Re: [musl] PPC64(LE) support in musl requires ALTIVEC

["A. Wilcox" <awilfox@adelielinux.org>]

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On 03/02/2020 08:50, Rich Felker wrote:
> Is this like the 32-bit Freescale things with the weird alternate FPU?
> We support those for ppc32 as soft-float (and AIUI the ABI for use
> with the FPU matches soft-float ABI, so in theory it could be
> supported but we were never clear on whether it's IEEE-conforming) but
> I wasn't aware of anything like that for 64-bit so it was never added.
> Assuming it's the same concept, I don't see a reason we couldn't add
> it.
> 
> Rich
> 


Yes, it's the exact same thing.

The Freescale e5500 series does not support AltiVec / VMX.  The
Freescale e6500 series, however, does.

The e5500 uses the e600 FPU, which Freescale certified IEEE 754
conformant.  I don't know if the e5500 was ever independently tested.

The QorIQ P50x0s use the e5500 core, as do the BAE radhard machines.
Some of the AmigaOne desktops do as well.

I believe FreeBSD supports the e5500 as 'powerpc64sbe', in line with the
e500v2 being 'powerpcsbe'.  But I cannot reliably confirm that; it's
been a while since I've dealt hands-on with FreeBSD's ppc64 machdep code
and it has had significant churn with the P9 enablement.

For our part, Adélie's ppc64 port requires AltiVec for performance
reasons; we made the explicit choice to not support the e5500 for 1.0.
We haven't had any requests to change this, but that doesn't mean users
aren't out there.  If the change is simple to do, having wider support
is always an admirable action.

Best,
--arw


-- 
A. Wilcox (awilfox)
Project Lead, Adélie Linux
https://www.adelielinux.org


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