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[Xen-devel] PROPOSAL: Remove 32-bit x86 host support in 4.2 development

To: "xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Xen-devel] PROPOSAL: Remove 32-bit x86 host support in 4.2 development branch
From: Keir Fraser <keir.xen@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2011 14:21:35 +0000
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Thread-topic: PROPOSAL: Remove 32-bit x86 host support in 4.2 development branch
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Folks,

There's been discussion in the past about eventually removing support for
32-bit x86 in the development branch of the hypervisor. The reasons being:
 * It takes developer effort to maintain and test
 * Most repackagers are supplying 64-bit only hypervisor binary these days
 * 32-bit target is not supported in any case for various new hypervisor
features (e.g., memory paging, memory sharing, memory access trapping)
 * 64-bit support has been standard in all mainstream x86 processors for
about the last 5 years. With a 64-bit processor there is no reason to run
the 32-bit hypervisor, as the 64-bit hypervisor supports all 32-bit guests.

With 4.1 branched I'd like to raise this topic again. Does anyone have a
strong argument for keeping the 32-bit x86 target alive?

 Thanks,
 Keir



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