Boot messages of a Linux kernel 2.6.25.17

The basic components of the Linux family of operating systems, which are based on the Linux kernel, the GNU C Library, BusyBox or forks thereof like μClinux and uClibc, have been programmed with a certain level of abstraction in mind. Also, there are distinct code paths in the assembly language or C source code which support certain hardware. Therefore, the source code can be successfully compiled on‍—‌or cross-compiled for‍—‌a great number of computer architectures.

Furthermore, the required free and open-source software has also been developed to interface between Linux and the hardware Linux is to be executed on. For example, compilers are available, e.g. GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) and LLVM/Clang. For cross-compilation a number of complete toolchains are available, like GNU toolchain, OpenWrt Buildroot or OpenEmbedded. The Yocto Project is targeted at embedded use cases.

The portability section of the Linux kernel article contains information and references to technical details.

Note that further components like a windowing system, or programs like Blender, can be present or absent. Fundamentally any software has to be ported, i.e. specifically adapted, to any kind of hardware it is supposed to be executed on. The level of abstraction that has been kept in mind while programming that software in the first place dictates the necessary effort.

The relevant term is of the porting target is computer architecture; it comprises the instruction set(s) and the microarchitecture(s) of the processor(s), at least of the CPU. The target also comprises the "system design" of the entire system, be it a supercomputer, a desktop computer or some SoC, e.g. in case some unique bus is being used. In former times, the memory controller was part of the chipset on the motherboard and not on the CPU-die.

Although the support of a specific instruction set is the task of the compiler, the software must be written with a certain level of abstraction in mind to make this portability possible. Any code written in Assembly language will be specific to the instruction set.

The support of a specific microarchitecture includes optimizations for the CPU cache hierarchy, the TLB, etc.

Releases

Additional processors (particularly Freescale's 68000 and ColdFire) are supported by the MMU-less μClinux variant.

See also

References

  1. ^ "'Linux 2.6.22-rc1' - MARC". marc.info. Retrieved 2024-04-15.
  2. ^ "Linux 4.17 Spring Cleaning To Drop Some Old CPU Architectures". www.phoronix.com. Retrieved 2024-04-15.
  3. ^ "Linux_4.17 - Linux Kernel Newbies". kernelnewbies.org. Retrieved 2024-04-15.
  4. ^ "Linux Kernel Driver DataBase: CONFIG_ARCH_ARC: Archimedes". cateee.net. Retrieved 2021-01-05.
  5. ^ "ARM Linux - Acorn - Overview". www.arm.linux.org.uk. Retrieved 2021-01-05.
  6. ^ "Linux on Palm Tungsten E". palmtelinux.sourceforge.net. Retrieved 2024-04-15.
  7. ^ "Kernel/Git/Torvalds/Linux.git - Linux kernel source tree".
  8. ^ "Csky « arch - kernel/Git/Torvalds/Linux.git - Linux kernel source tree".
  9. ^ "Arch/C6x: New architecture port for linux [LWN.net]".
  10. ^ "[GIT PULL] asm-generic changes for 5.19 - Arnd Bergmann". kernel.org.
  11. ^ "Meta Linux Kernel Port [LWN.net]".
  12. ^ "Remove IA-64 architecture support". kernel.org.
  13. ^ "ChangeLog-6.7". kernel.org.
  14. ^ "ELKS: The Embeddable Linux Kernel System". elks.sourceforge.net. Retrieved 2024-04-15.
  15. ^ "uClinux on the PSP". web.archive.org. 2007-01-14. Retrieved 2024-04-15.
  16. ^ Dream Multimedia DM 800 PVR technical data Archived 2008-05-27 at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ "Dream Multimedia DM 500 + technical data". Archived from the original on 2008-05-30.
  18. ^ "[GIT PULL] remove unicore32 support - Mike Rapoport". kernel.org.

External links

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux-supported_computer_architectures