Status of SoC support in the kernel
summary
Kernel SoC support is classified into five upstream support levels with focus on the two green levels where platforms track current or future LTS kernels. Most popular GPUs now have in-kernel drivers (about five of six), Android-specific patches shrink, and about eight or nine obsolete architectures were removed in 2018. Memory trends push 32-bit parts into 0.5–1 GB pockets while 64-bit targets use >=2 GB. Prediction: x86, arm64 and RISC‑V split the SoC market and 32-bit drops by 2030.
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chapters (17)
- 0:00Intro
- 0:28Platform/Kernel lifecycle
- 3:05Obstacles to upstreaming
- 6:30CPU architectures world map, ca. 2010
- 9:02SoC generations (approximation)
- 11:42External SDRAM technologies
- 15:47Minimum memory requirements
- 18:12Low end Linux - race to the bottom
- 19:45Embedded 32-bit Linux - middle class squeeze
- 23:42Obsolete architecture removal
- 24:382017: Endgame
- 25:26User migration
- 25:51Architectures with new hardware in 2019+ Obviously
- 27:27Endianess change
- 27:38New architectures
- 29:43Changesets by architecture and version
- 30:53Arnd's prediction for 2030
