The Linux Kernel Seeing Rare Code Activity Around SPARC64

9 mikece 8 7/24/2025, 1:18:13 PM phoronix.com ↗

Comments (8)

mikece · 1d ago
"Due to SPARC International, SPARC is fully open, non-proprietary and royalty-free."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARC

So why are fabs not making open source SPARC processors instead of RISC-V?

jlokier · 1d ago
Here's one company that makes both.

Their LEON processors are SPARC, and their NOEL processors are RISC-V.

https://www.gaisler.com/#reliable_computing_systems

MobiusHorizons · 1d ago
> SPARC64 was the last architecture not using the generic vDSO library code that in turn prevented some necessary code clean-ups. With this patch series transitioning the SPARC code to the generic vDSO infrastructure saves several hundred lines of code and slightly reducing the SPARC maintenance burden.
warrenm · 1d ago
People are still running enough SPARC64 for it to be worthy of updates?
MobiusHorizons · 23h ago
the update is to make it use the same codepaths as other targets so that it requires less maintenance
indigodaddy · 1d ago
You'd be surprised. It's still pretty prevalent at certain telecoms.
mrpippy · 1d ago
Running Linux? And up-to-date kernels?

Even if no one’s using it, it’s ok for the kernel to be supported and improved.

indigodaddy · 1d ago
Well, no, not running Linux, my bad.