Úgy tűnik a következő Linux kernel LTS verzió (6.1) után, 2023-ban eltávolíthatják a fejlesztők a 80486-os CPU-k támogatását. Az 1989-ben, az 80386 processzor utódaként, debütált Intel 80486, ismertebb nevén 486 az Intel által kifejlesztett x86 processzorcsalád egy tagja.

We got rid of i386 support back in 2012. Maybe it's time to get rid of i486 support in 2022?

Hogy kikeket érinthet a retró rajongókon kívül?

Hmm.. I can only find references to PC104 boards with Bay Trail (Pentium-class Atom core, iirc), and some possible FPGA implementations through MISTer.

There's apparently also a Vortex86DX board too, and I don't know what core that is based off, but judging from the fact that it has a dual-core version, it had *better* support cmpxchg8b anyway, because without that our 64-bit atomics aren't actually atomic.

(Trying to google around, it looks like the older Vortex86SX was a 486-class CPU and did indeed lack CX8

A kérdés a „multi-gen LRU: support page table walks” kapcsán vetődött fel, de Maciej W. Rozycki például vállalta, hogy a karbantartáshoz szükséges minimális munkát beleteszi:

Then long-term maintenance would be minimal to nil and all the code except for the wrapper and the emulation handler need not be concerned about the 486 obscurity. I can volunteer to maintain said wrapper and
emulation (and for that matter generic 486 support) if that helped to keep the 486 alive.

Eventually we may choose to drop 486 support after all, but CMPXCHG8B alone seems too small a reason to me for that to happen right now.

Ha már meg régebbi MIPS CPU-k is támogatást élveznek:

NB MIPS R2000 dates back to 1985, solid 4 years before the 486, and we continue supporting it with minimal effort. We do have atomic emulation for userland of course.

Nektek mi a véleményetek? Kellenek a régi vasak támogatása? Hol érdemes meghúzni a határt?