View source for Project:Platform Group

The '''Platform Group''' is the group in Adélie that is responsible for determining what platforms and CPU architectures are officially supported (Tier 1).  It is also the group that determines the compiler flags, toolchain version, and kernel versions to use per platform.  Additionally, the Platform Group is responsible for maintaining the toolchain and easy-kernel packages.


== Project members ==
* Aerdan
* [[User:Awilfox|awilfox]]
* mc680x0


== Architectures supported by Adélie ==
This is a list of architectures that are supported by Adélie Linux, and the rationales.  It also contains history and metadata about each architecture.

=== Tier 1 ===
'''Tier 1''' is the official support tier.  All packages built for Adélie Linux must compile, run, and pass their test suites on every Tier 1 platform.  A failure on any Tier 1 platform is a bug.  A package that is not specific to an architecture (for example, a boot loader or partition editor) must support every Tier 1 platform to be packaged for Adélie Linux.

Similarly, for a platform to be upgraded to Tier 1 status, all packages built for Adélie Linux must compile, run, and pass their test suites.  Additionally, hardware-level access to a computer representing the platform must be provided to the Platform Group; this computer will become the official build machine, and must be under full control of the Platform Group (BMC/IPMI).  Finally, the Platform Group must pass, with a simple majority, a vote on including the platform in the Adélie Linux system.

==== [[/PPC64|/PowerPC 64-bit]] ====
* IBM PowerPC 64 platform
* First version supported: 1.0-ALPHA3
* Microarchitectures supported by Adélie:
** POWER4 / 970 / G5 minimum; tuned for POWER8/9
* Rationale: The PowerPC 64 platform is very popular for datacentre and other server workloads.  It also has some desktop usage with the Power Macintosh G5 and Talos Workstation.

==== [[/PowerPC]] ====
* Motorola/IBM PowerPC platform
* First version supported: 1.0-ALPHA1
* Microarchitectures supported by Adélie:
** 7xx / G3 and higher
* Rationale: The PowerPC platform was used in many desktop and laptop computers up to 2006, and is still used in game consoles that can have a Linux installed via a 'homebrew' system.

==== [[/x86]] ====
* Intel x86 platform
* First version supported: 1.0-ALPHA1
* Microarchitectures supported by Adélie:
** 486 (generic)
** Pentium MMX
** ''Pentium 4'' (pending)
** ''NOTE:'' Other microarchitectures are still supported, but do not have custom packages built for them.  You will have to use the closest microarch to your CPU (or use generic to be safe).
* Rationale: The x86 platform is incredibly popular and millions of these chips have been produced.  There is a growing market of SoCs and IoT devices using the Pentium microarch in particular.  It is also useful for running older 32-bit binaries on a 64-bit Intel CPU using a chroot.

==== [[/x86_64]] ====
* Intel x86_64 EM64T / AMD64 platform
* First version supported: 1.0-ALPHA1
* Microarchitectures supported by Adélie:
** All / generic
* Rationale: The x86_64 platform has dominated the laptop market for a number of years.  It also has significant penetration in the server market.

==== [[/AArch64]] ====
* 64-bit ARM platform
* First version supported: 1.0-ALPHA7
* Microarchitectures supported by Adélie:
** All / generic
* Rationale: Inexpensive consumer hardware, and considerable presence in off-premises server hosting.


=== Tier 2 ===
'''Tier 2''' is the community support tier.  The Adélie project is not able to directly support the architectures specified here, either due to lack of infrastructure (build and test hardware) or lack of developers able to properly support them.  Mirroring of packages for these platforms may or may not be provided, depending on build hardware availability.  A failure on a Tier 2 platform is a bug, and may be looked at by our team, but failures may be expected.  Test suites may not pass for all packages, but there should not be any crashes.

==== [[/ARM]] ====
* 32-bit ARM platform
* First version supported: 1.0-ALPHA6
* Microarchitectures supported by Adélie:
** ''ARMv6'' (pending)
** ARMv7 / Cortex-A7
* Rationale: The ARM chip has seen explosive growth in tablets and has some penetration into the laptop market.


=== Tier 3 ===
'''Tier 3''' is reserved for experimental architectures.  Downloads, where available, may not function properly.  These are ''unsupported'' and may or may not be bootable; some may not even have any packages built beyond experiments.

==== [[/MIPS]] ====
* MIPS platform
* First version supported: ???
* Right now, only the r4k and MIPS32 cores are able to be tested.
* Rationale: The MIPS32 series of cores is popular in routers and other network appliances.  Projects like OpenWrt support the platform, so it has does have some other interest, and we can likely collaborate if we run in to platform issues.

==== m68k ====
* Platforms based on the Motorola 68000 CPU
* First version supported: ???


=== Currently unsupported ===

==== SPARC64 ====
The UltraSPARC-IIe, IIIe, and Fujitsu M series will be tested using a generic SPARCv9 ABI. No CPU-specific optimisations are planned. The musl libc is being ported, and this project must be finished before Adélie may be ported.

==== Alpha AXP ====
The Alpha AXP was originally planned to be a Tier 3 architecture in 2015, but the musl libc has not been ported to it yet.  Additionally, the Linux/Alpha bootloader may need more work before it can be used properly.



== FAQ ==
=== Why is GCC version 6? ===
There are multiple code generation issues in later versions of GCC, and there are also crashing bugs (ICE).  See [https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=88214 PR#88214] for an example.

=== Why not Clang? ===
Clang does not support MIPS nor PowerPC very well.  If we do land a SPARC port, its support for SPARC is non-existent.  RISC-V support is also very shaky, as is support for non-686 x86_32.  Additionally, Clang cannot compile the kernel.


== Resources ==
In addition to evaluating ports and toolchains, we also maintain the [https://help.adelielinux.org/html/porting/ Adélie Linux Porting Guide] and the Adélie Linux Platform Group Resource Disc which contains source tarballs, patches, and other resources for offline work towards creating new ports of Adélie.