Sparc v8/sparc64 Debian port options?
As much as I would like the idea of a full debian port running in 64
bit native v9b instruction set the memory and size bloat of the
footprint would nullify a large number of its advantages if it was
system wide.
The problem I see is that currently a large number of applications
due to there very nature require the faster and more productive
instruction sets of version 8 and above.
Many user space applications are perfectly ok running in what is my
personal belief to be a overall broken sparclite instruction set
that is the default for the current debian sparc port. However there
are many applications that would offer either greatly improved
performance or even sometimes allow the application to be used when
it would normally not be able to run at a working speed due to its
needed resources on the host system or overall application design.
So the logical choice to me seems to be this:
For every sparc package there needs to exist at least 2 packages
available to meet the demands of the open source sparc based
community, the current standard sparclite based package and a more up
to date package compiled for at least version 8 of the sparc
instruction set with the same files, just a updated arch. Optionally
I think for the larger and more intensive applications like ssh,
mysql and the like a third optional 64 bit v9b package should be
available.
This would allow older systems the ability of backward compatibility
and the ability to run debian while offering the greatest amount of
support for the newer instruction sets that allow greater speed for
complicated encoding functions such as for example voIP or SSH; Any
of you who run a ssh server know how long it takes to set up a
connection with the current packages compiled for sparclite.
If packages where available for even the 32 bit v8 instruction set of
the ssh libraries and application data the performance would
skyrocket.
What do you all think? I wanted your ideas before I went any further
with this.
- D
Reply to: