how long to keep support for gcc on x86?

[Ian Lepore]

On Sun, 2013-01-13 at 16:58 -0800, Peter Wemm wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 13, 2013 at 3:08 PM, Adrian Chadd <adrian at freebsd.org> wrote:
> > ... ?
> >
> > As an embedded platform, I'd expect that people will want to support
> > any feature which dramatically boosts performance whilst reducing CPU.
> >
> > Also, if Intel decide to keep trying to push low power x86 for mobile
> > applications, rather than ARM, x86 may just make a resurgence in
> > places you once thought were servers.
> >
> > 32 bit x86 isn't legacy and won't be for a long time to come.
> 
> Our buildworld environment and embedded $everything isn't well known
> for being embedded friendly.  I'd wager that if somebody was trying to
> use an i386 kernel in an embedded device where every last thing
> counted, they'd be using an external toolchain targeted for their
> platform and some very selective cross-building.  Compiler of
> $your_choice would be on the table if you were doing external
> compiling, and.. the default in-tree compiler does support AES-NI on
> both i386 and amd64, and the logical other choice (gcc-4.6+ and
> binutils) also does.

Ummm.  Search for "industrial single board computer."  They're not rare.
Lots of us build products around them.  Some of us use FreeBSD to do so,
with the stock toolchain.  I sure hope support for 32 bit x86 isn't
fading away any time soon.

-- Ian