On Monday, February 8, 2021, Florian Weimer <fweimer(a)redhat.com> wrote:
* Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton:
> i checked the ELF v2 PDF, it specifically mentions VSX.
It's also implicit in the function calling convention for quadwords,
which are passed in registers, and perhaps in other places. That's why
it's non-trivial to change.
understood.
>> It is possible to define a different ABI without VSX support, but it
>> would have a different GNU triplet (not powerpc64le-*-linux-gnu) and a
>> different RPM architecture (not ppc64le).
>
> i found this:
>
>
https://refspecs.linuxfoundation.org/ELF/ppc64/PPC-elf64abi.html
>
> which appears to be a supplemental of the old PowerPC 64 bit ELF V1 ABI.
Isn't this the V1 ABI, with function descriptors and all?
that would make sense [as a supplement]
<
https://refspecs.linuxfoundation.org/ELF/ppc64/PPC-elf64abi.html#FUNC-DES
The V1 ABI does not require VSX. But it's also restricted to big-endian
in the GNU/Linux implementation.
ahh this explains why Roberto from PPCNotebook is advocating a ppc64 BE
distro.
the ELFv1 supplemental mentions that LE and BE are permitted: i am guessing
it would have been an arbitrary choice at the time to choose BE.
this is very helpful Florian, despite appearances.
i have since found the OPF ELF mailing list, will reach out there
http://lists.mailinglist.openpowerfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/syssw-e...
l.
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