How to upload compiled packages?

[Will L Givens]

I know EV6 can run EV5 binaries (backward compatibility) but EV5's cannot
run EV6 binaries. That is why everyone simply builds EV5 packages, it will
run on the majority of Alphas. EV6 having functions the EV5/PCA56 cannot
remotely emulate I just gave the 'out our sequence' function as one of the
differences. The same thing applies even more so for binaries compiled with
Compaq C (linked to libots).

I tried EV6/67 binaries on my AlphaPC 164SX (PCA56), they do not run...
There is NO emulation in the SRM that I'm aware of, to make older cpus
compatible with newer cpu instructions... Compaq seldom thought that far
ahead.

As for MVI, I know of only one program that uses MVI, that's ffmpeg (thus
Mplayer). So compiling PCA56 binaries for an EV6 should work fine. Never
really tested it though. Sincerely, Will L G

-----Original Message-----
From: axp-list-bounces at redhat.com [mailto:axp-list-bounces at redhat.com] On
Behalf Of Matt Turner
Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2008 11:22
To: Linux on Alpha processors
Subject: Re: How to upload compiled packages?

On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 12:05 PM, Will L Givens <diskman at kc.rr.com> wrote:
> EV5 and EV6 binaries are not compatible. Not because of MVI but because of
> the different processors and the binaries themselves. MVI is only used by
a
> few programs such as FFMPEG. One of the big sticking point is the out of
> order execution, EV5/PCA56 simply can't do it.

No, this isn't correct at all. Compatibility has nothing to do with in
order vs out of order execution. EV6 will run any EV5 binary. The only
thing preventing compatibility is the instruction extensions (BWX,
MVI, FIX, CIX). In most cases, given a new  SRM/PALcode, EV5s can
emulate instructions they don't support in hardware.

Compilers may optimize for EV6 or EV5 by reordering instructions given
their in order/out of order nature, but it doesn't directly affect
compatibility.

Matt

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