considering i386 as a tier 1 architecture

[Mehmet Erol Sanliturk]

On Mon, Apr 1, 2013 at 3:39 AM, Dag-Erling Smørgrav <des at des.no> wrote:

> Mehmet Erol Sanliturk <m.e.sanliturk at gmail.com> writes:
> > At present, there is NO any processor which is ONLY 32-bits.
>
> All the world is not a PC.  There are still 32-bit x86-based embedded or
> small-form-factor systems, such as the soekris net5501 and net6501,
> which are widely used in the BSD community.
>
> DES
> --
> Dag-Erling Smørgrav - des at des.no
>


These are special purpose systems and they are not developed by , let's say
, "ordinary" users . Therefore , their developers may maintain the existing
i386 branch as a specialized branch with a freedom to tailor it to more
specific needs .

Since I am not a developer or user of such a system , I can not say whether
25000 packages are necessary for them or not . Reducing any amount of work
load which its outcome is not directly  used is a contribution to the
FreeBSD project  by diverting such efforts to other man power or resources
required areas .


When costs are considered , some times 64 bit capable systems are not so
expensive :

As an example :  From a computer shop in Turkey with many branch shops :

Memory : 1 Giga Bytes chips : From $27 + VAT to $40 + VAT
               4 Giga Bytes chips : From $31 + VAT to $43 + VAT

There is NO reason to buy 4 x ( 1 Giga Bytes ) , when the difference is a
few dollars with 4 x ( 4 Giga Bytes ) .

AMD Sempron 145 AM3 2.8GHz processor is $ 34 + VAT which is 64 bits capable
.

As I said above , I am not able to make knowledgeable comparisons about
such systems
but my opinion is that these specialized systems are not so much
advantageous .


Thank you very much .

Mehmet Erol Sanliturk