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Linux 4.17 Kernel Offers Better Intel Power-Savings While Dropping Old CPUs (phoronix.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Linus Torvalds has released Linux 4.17-rc1. This kernel comes with a significant amount of new capabilities as outlined by the Linux 4.17 feature overview. Among the new features are AMDGPU WattMan support, Intel HDCP support, Vega 12 GPU enablement, NVIDIA Xavier SoC support, removal of obsolete CPU architectures, and even better support for the original Macintosh PowerBook 100 series. Phoronix testing has also revealed measurable power savings improvements and better power efficiency on Intel hardware. The kernel is expected to be stabilized by June.
Things like Unicore, Hexagon, S+core, OpenRISC, M32R, Cris i.e. stuff most people didn't even heard about.
The long version at (as always) excellent LWN:
https://lwn.net/Articles/74807... and
https://lwn.net/Articles/74929...
:wq
I'm curious what's considered an "obsolete CPU architecture" if a Powerbook 100 is still supported.
The full list of dropped CPUs is Blackfin, CRIS, FRV, M32R, Metag, MN10300, Score, and Tile. Also under consideration are Unicore32 and Hexagon, but they are not officially gone yet. Apparently this change removes about half a million lines of code, a substantial reduction in complexity. I had never heard of any of these before and I suspect most other people haven't either, so I don't think they will be missed.
things like Power4, Blackfin, M32R etc.
Which are all newer than the motorola 68000 in the powerbook 100.
"Newer" has nothing to do with "less obsolete". There is a link in TFA, describing eight dropped architectures as "without active users". POWER4 was dropped because POWER4 support is broken since two years already and no fix or rework available (and apparently no urge to fix it).
So yes, a newer architecture can be obsolete when an older one is still alive and kicking.