[RFC/RFA] Obsolete Cell Broadband Engine SPU targets

[RFC/RFA] Obsolete Cell Broadband Engine SPU targets

[Ulrich Weigand]

Hello,

the spu-elf target in GCC supports generating code for the SPU processors
of the Cell Broadband Engine; it has been part of upstream GCC since 2008.

However, at this point I believe this target is no longer in use:
- There is no supported Cell/B.E. hardware any more.
- There is no supported operating system supporting Cell/B.E. any more.

I've still been running daily regression tests until now, but I'll be
unable to continue to do so much longer since the systems I've been
using for this will go away.

Rather than leave SPU support untested/maintained, I'd therefore
propose to declare all SPU targets obsolete in GCC 9 and remove
the code with GCC 10.

Any objections to this approach?

Bye,
Ulrich


gcc/ChangeLog:

	* config.gcc: Mark spu* targets as deprecated/obsolete.

Index: gcc/config.gcc
===================================================================
--- gcc/config.gcc	(revision 270076)
+++ gcc/config.gcc	(working copy)
@@ -248,6 +248,7 @@ md_file=
 # Obsolete configurations.
 case ${target} in
   *-*-solaris2.10*			\
+  | spu*-*-*				\
   | tile*-*-*				\
  )
     if test "x$enable_obsolete" != xyes; then
-- 
  Dr. Ulrich Weigand
  GNU/Linux compilers and toolchain
  Ulrich.Weigand@de.ibm.com

Re: [RFC/RFA] Obsolete Cell Broadband Engine SPU targets

[Richard Biener]

On April 2, 2019 11:46:14 AM GMT+02:00, Ulrich Weigand <uweigand@de.ibm.com> wrote:
>Hello,
>
>the spu-elf target in GCC supports generating code for the SPU
>processors
>of the Cell Broadband Engine; it has been part of upstream GCC since
>2008.
>
>However, at this point I believe this target is no longer in use:
>- There is no supported Cell/B.E. hardware any more.
>- There is no supported operating system supporting Cell/B.E. any more.
>
>I've still been running daily regression tests until now, but I'll be
>unable to continue to do so much longer since the systems I've been
>using for this will go away.
>
>Rather than leave SPU support untested/maintained, I'd therefore
>propose to declare all SPU targets obsolete in GCC 9 and remove
>the code with GCC 10.
>
>Any objections to this approach?

Works for me. 

Richard. 

>Bye,
>Ulrich
>
>
>gcc/ChangeLog:
>
>	* config.gcc: Mark spu* targets as deprecated/obsolete.
>
>Index: gcc/config.gcc
>===================================================================
>--- gcc/config.gcc	(revision 270076)
>+++ gcc/config.gcc	(working copy)
>@@ -248,6 +248,7 @@ md_file=
> # Obsolete configurations.
> case ${target} in
>   *-*-solaris2.10*			\
>+  | spu*-*-*				\
>   | tile*-*-*				\
>  )
>     if test "x$enable_obsolete" != xyes; then

Re: [RFC/RFA] Obsolete Cell Broadband Engine SPU targets

[Jeff Law]

On 4/2/19 3:46 AM, Ulrich Weigand wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> the spu-elf target in GCC supports generating code for the SPU processors
> of the Cell Broadband Engine; it has been part of upstream GCC since 2008.
> 
> However, at this point I believe this target is no longer in use:
> - There is no supported Cell/B.E. hardware any more.
> - There is no supported operating system supporting Cell/B.E. any more.
> 
> I've still been running daily regression tests until now, but I'll be
> unable to continue to do so much longer since the systems I've been
> using for this will go away.
> 
> Rather than leave SPU support untested/maintained, I'd therefore
> propose to declare all SPU targets obsolete in GCC 9 and remove
> the code with GCC 10.
> 
> Any objections to this approach?
> 
> Bye,
> Ulrich
> 
> 
> gcc/ChangeLog:
> 
> 	* config.gcc: Mark spu* targets as deprecated/obsolete.
WOrks for me as well.
jeff

Re: [RFC/RFA] Obsolete Cell Broadband Engine SPU targets

[Ulrich Weigand]

Thanks, Richi and Jeff!

> 	* config.gcc: Mark spu* targets as deprecated/obsolete.

I've now checked this in.

I've also checked in the following patch to announce the change
in htdocs.

Bye,
Ulrich

Index: htdocs/gcc-9/changes.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/gcc/wwwdocs/htdocs/gcc-9/changes.html,v
retrieving revision 1.56
diff -u -r1.56 changes.html
--- htdocs/gcc-9/changes.html	1 Apr 2019 14:55:53 -0000	1.56
+++ htdocs/gcc-9/changes.html	2 Apr 2019 13:45:27 -0000
@@ -54,6 +54,11 @@
       in the <a href="https://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2018-10/msg00139.html">
       announcement</a>.</li>
     </ul>
+    <ul>
+      <li>Cell Broadband Engine SPU (<code>spu*-*-*</code>).  Details can be found
+      in the <a href="https://gcc.gnu.org/ml/gcc/2019-04/msg00023.html">
+      announcement</a>.</li>
+    </ul>
   </li>
 </ul>
 

-- 
  Dr. Ulrich Weigand
  GNU/Linux compilers and toolchain
  Ulrich.Weigand@de.ibm.com

Re: [RFC/RFA] Obsolete Cell Broadband Engine SPU targets

[Andrew Pinski]

On Tue, Apr 2, 2019 at 2:46 AM Ulrich Weigand <uweigand@de.ibm.com> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> the spu-elf target in GCC supports generating code for the SPU processors
> of the Cell Broadband Engine; it has been part of upstream GCC since 2008.
>
> However, at this point I believe this target is no longer in use:
> - There is no supported Cell/B.E. hardware any more.
> - There is no supported operating system supporting Cell/B.E. any more.
>
> I've still been running daily regression tests until now, but I'll be
> unable to continue to do so much longer since the systems I've been
> using for this will go away.
>
> Rather than leave SPU support untested/maintained, I'd therefore
> propose to declare all SPU targets obsolete in GCC 9 and remove
> the code with GCC 10.
>
> Any objections to this approach?

This is ok with me too.  Though I have been out of Cell development
for a while now.

Thanks,
Andrew

>
> Bye,
> Ulrich
>
>
> gcc/ChangeLog:
>
>         * config.gcc: Mark spu* targets as deprecated/obsolete.
>
> Index: gcc/config.gcc
> ===================================================================
> --- gcc/config.gcc      (revision 270076)
> +++ gcc/config.gcc      (working copy)
> @@ -248,6 +248,7 @@ md_file=
>  # Obsolete configurations.
>  case ${target} in
>    *-*-solaris2.10*                     \
> +  | spu*-*-*                           \
>    | tile*-*-*                          \
>   )
>      if test "x$enable_obsolete" != xyes; then
> --
>   Dr. Ulrich Weigand
>   GNU/Linux compilers and toolchain
>   Ulrich.Weigand@de.ibm.com
>

Re: [RFC/RFA] Obsolete Cell Broadband Engine SPU targets

[Eric Gallager]

On 4/2/19, Ulrich Weigand <uweigand@de.ibm.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> the spu-elf target in GCC supports generating code for the SPU processors
> of the Cell Broadband Engine; it has been part of upstream GCC since 2008.
>
> However, at this point I believe this target is no longer in use:
> - There is no supported Cell/B.E. hardware any more.

Wait, SPU includes the Playstation 3, right? I'm pretty sure there are
still plenty of PS3s in use out there... AFAIK my university (GWU) is
still running its PS3 supercomputer cluster... (I'd have to check to
make sure...)

> - There is no supported operating system supporting Cell/B.E. any more.
>
> I've still been running daily regression tests until now, but I'll be
> unable to continue to do so much longer since the systems I've been
> using for this will go away.
>
> Rather than leave SPU support untested/maintained, I'd therefore
> propose to declare all SPU targets obsolete in GCC 9 and remove
> the code with GCC 10.
>
> Any objections to this approach?
>
> Bye,
> Ulrich
>
>
> gcc/ChangeLog:
>
> 	* config.gcc: Mark spu* targets as deprecated/obsolete.
>
> Index: gcc/config.gcc
> ===================================================================
> --- gcc/config.gcc	(revision 270076)
> +++ gcc/config.gcc	(working copy)
> @@ -248,6 +248,7 @@ md_file=
>  # Obsolete configurations.
>  case ${target} in
>    *-*-solaris2.10*			\
> +  | spu*-*-*				\
>    | tile*-*-*				\
>   )
>      if test "x$enable_obsolete" != xyes; then
> --
>   Dr. Ulrich Weigand
>   GNU/Linux compilers and toolchain
>   Ulrich.Weigand@de.ibm.com
>
>

Re: [RFC/RFA] Obsolete Cell Broadband Engine SPU targets

[Ulrich Weigand]

Eric Gallagher wrote:
> On 4/2/19, Ulrich Weigand <uweigand@de.ibm.com> wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > the spu-elf target in GCC supports generating code for the SPU processors
> > of the Cell Broadband Engine; it has been part of upstream GCC since 2008.
> >
> > However, at this point I believe this target is no longer in use:
> > - There is no supported Cell/B.E. hardware any more.
> 
> Wait, SPU includes the Playstation 3, right? I'm pretty sure there are
> still plenty of PS3s in use out there... AFAIK my university (GWU) is
> still running its PS3 supercomputer cluster... (I'd have to check to
> make sure...)

GCC has only ever supported Linux targets on Cell/B.E.  I understand
Sony has removed Linux support for PS3 a long time ago.  (And in fact,
I believe support for PS3 in general has run out this year.)

Of course, there may be some people out there still running PS3 with
old firmware that runs Linux.  But they will then have to also use
older GCC versions, sorry.

(Unless, of course, somebody steps up and volunteers to take over
the maintainance of the target.)

Bye,
Ulrich

-- 
  Dr. Ulrich Weigand
  GNU/Linux compilers and toolchain
  Ulrich.Weigand@de.ibm.com

Re: [RFC/RFA] Obsolete Cell Broadband Engine SPU targets

[Jeff Law]

On 4/2/19 10:49 AM, Eric Gallager wrote:
> On 4/2/19, Ulrich Weigand <uweigand@de.ibm.com> wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> the spu-elf target in GCC supports generating code for the SPU processors
>> of the Cell Broadband Engine; it has been part of upstream GCC since 2008.
>>
>> However, at this point I believe this target is no longer in use:
>> - There is no supported Cell/B.E. hardware any more.
> 
> Wait, SPU includes the Playstation 3, right? I'm pretty sure there are
> still plenty of PS3s in use out there... AFAIK my university (GWU) is
> still running its PS3 supercomputer cluster... (I'd have to check to
> make sure...)
Even if there's potentially still users out there, if there's no
maintainer to support the target, then it should be deprecated.

Of course, you could always step into that role.  I'm sure Ulrich could
fill you in on the responsibilities.

jeff