This removes the entire architecture code for blackfin, cris, frv, m32r,
metag, mn10300, score, and tile, including the associated device drivers.
I have been working with the (former) maintainers for each one to ensure
that my interpretation was right and the code is definitely unused in
mainline kernels. Many had fond memories of working on the respective
ports to start with and getting them included in upstream, but also saw
no point in keeping the port alive without any users.
In the end, it seems that while the eight architectures are extremely
different, they all suffered the same fate: There was one company
in charge of an SoC line, a CPU microarchitecture and a software
ecosystem, which was more costly than licensing newer off-the-shelf
CPU cores from a third party (typically ARM, MIPS, or RISC-V). It seems
that all the SoC product lines are still around, but have not used the
custom CPU architectures for several years at this point. In contrast,
CPU instruction sets that remain popular and have actively maintained
kernel ports tend to all be used across multiple licensees.
The removal came out of a discussion that is now documented at
https://lwn.net/Articles/748074/. Unlike the original plans, I'm not
marking any ports as deprecated but remove them all at once after I made
sure that they are all unused. Some architectures (notably tile, mn10300,
and blackfin) are still being shipped in products with old kernels,
but those products will never be updated to newer kernel releases.
After this series, we still have a few architectures without mainline
gcc support:
- unicore32 and hexagon both have very outdated gcc releases, but the
maintainers promised to work on providing something newer. At least
in case of hexagon, this will only be llvm, not gcc.
- openrisc, risc-v and nds32 are still in the process of finishing their
support or getting it added to mainline gcc in the first place.
They all have patched gcc-7.3 ports that work to some degree, but
complete upstream support won't happen before gcc-8.1. Csky posted
their first kernel patch set last week, their situation will be similar.
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Merge tag 'arch-removal' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/arnd/asm-generic
Pul removal of obsolete architecture ports from Arnd Bergmann:
"This removes the entire architecture code for blackfin, cris, frv,
m32r, metag, mn10300, score, and tile, including the associated device
drivers.
I have been working with the (former) maintainers for each one to
ensure that my interpretation was right and the code is definitely
unused in mainline kernels. Many had fond memories of working on the
respective ports to start with and getting them included in upstream,
but also saw no point in keeping the port alive without any users.
In the end, it seems that while the eight architectures are extremely
different, they all suffered the same fate: There was one company in
charge of an SoC line, a CPU microarchitecture and a software
ecosystem, which was more costly than licensing newer off-the-shelf
CPU cores from a third party (typically ARM, MIPS, or RISC-V). It
seems that all the SoC product lines are still around, but have not
used the custom CPU architectures for several years at this point. In
contrast, CPU instruction sets that remain popular and have actively
maintained kernel ports tend to all be used across multiple licensees.
[ See the new nds32 port merged in the previous commit for the next
generation of "one company in charge of an SoC line, a CPU
microarchitecture and a software ecosystem" - Linus ]
The removal came out of a discussion that is now documented at
https://lwn.net/Articles/748074/. Unlike the original plans, I'm not
marking any ports as deprecated but remove them all at once after I
made sure that they are all unused. Some architectures (notably tile,
mn10300, and blackfin) are still being shipped in products with old
kernels, but those products will never be updated to newer kernel
releases.
After this series, we still have a few architectures without mainline
gcc support:
- unicore32 and hexagon both have very outdated gcc releases, but the
maintainers promised to work on providing something newer. At least
in case of hexagon, this will only be llvm, not gcc.
- openrisc, risc-v and nds32 are still in the process of finishing
their support or getting it added to mainline gcc in the first
place. They all have patched gcc-7.3 ports that work to some
degree, but complete upstream support won't happen before gcc-8.1.
Csky posted their first kernel patch set last week, their situation
will be similar
[ Palmer Dabbelt points out that RISC-V support is in mainline gcc
since gcc-7, although gcc-7.3.0 is the recommended minimum - Linus ]"
This really says it all:
2498 files changed, 95 insertions(+), 467668 deletions(-)
* tag 'arch-removal' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/arnd/asm-generic: (74 commits)
MAINTAINERS: UNICORE32: Change email account
staging: iio: remove iio-trig-bfin-timer driver
tty: hvc: remove tile driver
tty: remove bfin_jtag_comm and hvc_bfin_jtag drivers
serial: remove tile uart driver
serial: remove m32r_sio driver
serial: remove blackfin drivers
serial: remove cris/etrax uart drivers
usb: Remove Blackfin references in USB support
usb: isp1362: remove blackfin arch glue
usb: musb: remove blackfin port
usb: host: remove tilegx platform glue
pwm: remove pwm-bfin driver
i2c: remove bfin-twi driver
spi: remove blackfin related host drivers
watchdog: remove bfin_wdt driver
can: remove bfin_can driver
mmc: remove bfin_sdh driver
input: misc: remove blackfin rotary driver
input: keyboard: remove bf54x driver
...
To understand all the Linux-USB framework, you'll use these resources:
* This source code. This is necessarily an evolving work, and
includes kerneldoc that should help you get a current overview.
("make pdfdocs", and then look at "usb.pdf" for host side and
"gadget.pdf" for peripheral side.) Also, Documentation/usb has
more information.
* The USB 2.0 specification (from www.usb.org), with supplements
such as those for USB OTG and the various device classes.
The USB specification has a good overview chapter, and USB
peripherals conform to the widely known "Chapter 9".
* Chip specifications for USB controllers. Examples include
host controllers (on PCs, servers, and more); peripheral
controllers (in devices with Linux firmware, like printers or
cell phones); and hard-wired peripherals like Ethernet adapters.
* Specifications for other protocols implemented by USB peripheral
functions. Some are vendor-specific; others are vendor-neutral
but just standardized outside of the www.usb.org team.
Here is a list of what each subdirectory here is, and what is contained in
them.
core/ - This is for the core USB host code, including the
usbfs files and the hub class driver ("hub_wq").
host/ - This is for USB host controller drivers. This
includes UHCI, OHCI, EHCI, and others that might
be used with more specialized "embedded" systems.
gadget/ - This is for USB peripheral controller drivers and
the various gadget drivers which talk to them.
Individual USB driver directories. A new driver should be added to the
first subdirectory in the list below that it fits into.
image/ - This is for still image drivers, like scanners or
digital cameras.
../input/ - This is for any driver that uses the input subsystem,
like keyboard, mice, touchscreens, tablets, etc.
../media/ - This is for multimedia drivers, like video cameras,
radios, and any other drivers that talk to the v4l
subsystem.
../net/ - This is for network drivers.
serial/ - This is for USB to serial drivers.
storage/ - This is for USB mass-storage drivers.
class/ - This is for all USB device drivers that do not fit
into any of the above categories, and work for a range
of USB Class specified devices.
misc/ - This is for all USB device drivers that do not fit
into any of the above categories.
f5a8eb632b