Re: What's the plan for powerpc64 in FreeBSD 16

On 25-11-26 15:47:38, Al wrote:
> 
> On Wed, 26 Nov 2025, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:
> 
> > Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2025 17:07:23 +0000
> > From: Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@phk.freebsd.dk>
> > To: Minsoo Choo <minsoochoo0122@proton.me>
> > Cc: Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com>,
> >     "freebsd-arch@freebsd.org" <arch@freebsd.org>
> > Subject: Re: What's the plan for powerpc64 in FreeBSD 16
> > 
> > Minsoo Choo writes:
> >
> >> After reading replies, I still have questions why we should keep powerpc64be.
> >
> >> Second, regarding arguments about keeping big-endian support in codebase even
> >> if no one actually physically runs the code:
> >> This also applies to leaving 32-bit code (armv7) in tree for future
> >> compatibility.
> >
> > I think that is a bit of a leap, although in principle I agree.
> >
> > However, I am much less convinced that a relevant new 32 bit platform
> > will appear, than that somebody comes out with a 64 BE platform.
> >
> > Bit-rot is a thing, and unless we are willing to say "Screw anybody
> > silly enough to create BE platform now or in the future" we should
> > still guard against it.
> 
> There is a number of new PowerPC 64 BE systems:
> A1222
BE, but not 64-bit. It's supported via powerpcspe port on FreeBSD, which
is already deprecated along with powerpc.
> Sam460 several versions
I'm not sure about that, I think it's also 32-bit.
> Mirari (New PPC hardware)
This one will be ugly, similarly to e5500. e5500 is 64-bit, but without
Altivec, so it's below the usual baseline. Mirari will use e6500. e6500
supports BE with Altivec. It also supports LE, but without VSX. The
current baseline for LE is POWER8, which supports VSX.
e5500 works on FreeBSD, but requires building everything on your own,
along with the OS itself, by using CPUTYPE?=e5500 in make.conf,
otherwise Altivec instructions will be issued by clang. If we ever get
binary packages on powerpc64, e5500 users will still need to build their
own because of that.

e6500 will be in the same boat when using LE, but will be fine on BE.
> Also, https://www.powerpc-notebook.org/en/
powerpc-notebook has been in development for years, Mirari guys took
much less to do much more. At this point, I don't believe
powerpc-notebook will ever be released.
> I am also told you can still buy X5000s new.
> 
> 
>