ARM64 (was: Summary of the ARM ports BoF at DC16)
> arm64
> =====
>
> Most recent ARM port. All looking good now - we've been mostly able to
> move on from Juno development platforms to real server hardware
> now. We're using some APM Mustang machines and an AMD Seattle box
> hosted by ARM and Linaro at the moment, and even real arm64 server
> machines are finally coming available. Looking to move more of our ARM
> buildds over onto these arm64 servers in the future, as this will
> improve reliability and manageability.
>
> We're using a single kernel for arm64, using DTB or ACPI for
> configuration. Works well.
>
> Affordable, usable machines are available now, e.g. the Cello or
> SoftIron 1000 for ~$600. Linaro's 96boards machines are not using a
> standard form factor which is sub-optimal. There's a Marvell arm64
> board due soon (H2 2016) in ATX. The SoftIron 1000 doesn't have PCI,
> but should be good for development/buildd otherwise. Another cheap
> option is the Pine64. It's stuck on a vendor kernel for now, but
> that's being steadily worked on. Cheap: quad A53, 2GB RAM, $29.
Hats off for the ARM64 support. The best I can tell, the support is
complete - ARM64 performs just like its i386 and x86_64 older
brothers.
There are three other ARM64 gadgets worth mentioning... We purchased
them after our package maintainer, László Böszörményi, filed some bug
reports against us. We did not like playing catch-up in the QEMU
Chroot's; we wanted to get ahead of things.
* LeMaker HiKey (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B019O3QTSA), $169 USD
* SnapDragon 410c (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01600X7IU), $75 USD
* Raspberry Pi 3 Model B (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CD5VC92), $38 USD
The Mustang board is a nice test platform because its an early ARMv8
board. While its ARMv8, it lacks CRC and Crypto extensions. Robert
Nelson lends us time on his Mustang, and it uncovered two bugs in our
CPU feature detection logic.
Jeff
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