Re: Deprecate i386 for GCC 4.8?

[David Brown <david at westcontrol dot com>]

On 19/12/2012 23:32, Joel Sherrill wrote:
> I also couldn't find any strong indication that one could purchase
> VHDL or an IP module to build an i386dx class System on Chip.

I don't think this would be one to worry about.  The x86 architecture 
would be massively inefficient to implement in any sort of programmable 
logic or ASIC - there are other processor cores that would be faster 
(both development time and processor speed), smaller, easier and cheaper 
to implement.  The main reason to implement old or inefficient cores in 
programmable chips is for compatibility of old software when devices are 
no longer available - but there is no shortage of modern chips that run 
i386 code.

There might be hard macros available with 386 cores, but I think it is 
highly unlikely that anyone makes them any more - other cores have been 
a better and more popular choice for a very long time.

And if anyone still has such old cores, it is likely that they use old 
tools - deprecating i386 for gcc 4.8 does not hinder anyone from using 
gcc 4.7 or earlier.