Re: Deprecate i386 for GCC 4.8?

[David Brown <david dot brown at hesbynett dot no>]

On 12/12/12 20:54, Robert Dewar wrote:
> On 12/12/2012 2:52 PM, Steven Bosscher wrote:
>
> > And as usual: If you use an almost 30 years old architecture, why
> > would you need the latest-and-greatest compiler technology?
> > Seriously...
>
> Well the embedded folk often end up with precisely this dichotomy :-)

True enough.

> But if no sign of 386 embedded chips, then reasonable to deprecate
> I agree.

I believe it has been a very long time since any manufacturers made a 
pure 386 chip.  While I've never used x86 devices in any of my embedded 
systems, I believe there are two main classes of x86 embedded systems - 
those that use DOS (these still exist!), and those that aim to be a 
small PC with more modern x86 OS's.  For the DOS systems, gcc does not 
matter, because it is not used - compilers like OpenWatcom are far more 
common (ref. the FreeDOS website).  And for people looking for "embedded 
PC's", the processor is always going to be a lot more modern than the 
386 - otherwise they are not going to be able to run any current OS.

The only people I can think of that still actively compile for 386 as 
the lowest common denominator are the BSD folks.  Some of them still 
like to compile with compatibility for 386 chips.  But I have no idea if 
they need 386 support in future gcc versions.

> > Ciao!
> > Steven