[RFC] Dropping Alpha sparse mapping support from X

[Alan Hourihane]

On Thu, 2009-09-03 at 21:50 -0500, Bob Tracy wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 03, 2009 at 05:25:29PM -0400, Lennart Sorensen wrote:
> > On Thu, Sep 03, 2009 at 05:08:00PM -0400, Matt Turner wrote:
> > > I'd like to drop support for non-BWX Alphas (EV4 and original EV5)
> > > from X. These machines can't load/store to single bytes and require
> > > special sparse memory mappings.
> > > 
> > > The code required to select which functions (sparse, dense) is
> > > convoluted, adds an extra layer of indirection, probably gets close to
> > > zero usage, and even less testing.
> > > 
> > > Does anyone use X on EV4 or EV5 (not EV56, EV56 has BWX)?
> > 
> > Well I have a few EV56's, so those are fine.  I think one machine I have
> > is an EV5 or maybe even an EV4, but it only has 32MB of ram so it is
> > totally useless as debian can't run on it.
> > 
> > So I personally wouldn't notice the change.  Anyone else out there?
> 
> Got a PWS 433au: EV56.  Proposed change would have no impact here.

I do have a Multia (21066 CPU) with the 21030 graphics chip which was
used to write the DEC TGA driver, so we'd lose that, but I'm not sure
how many people are still using the TGA's.

Alan.