Minimum System Requirements

[testcorelinux]

I would like to know whether some code could be eliminated (in the OS) inorder to make a system run UP from a minimum specification? In other words, a distro will not run on 486Dx when a minimum specification is targeted for Pentium 4 (i686). The benefit: It will save some excessive coding.

The whole purpose of the above is why Lightweight (some?) Distros are making 486 or 386 as their minimum target? I don't know how many in the world would have a running 486 machine. They could have targeted Pentium 4 (i686) as their minimum specfication. The Distro or OS (i suppose) could have been lighter.

Can anyone throw some light on this?

Thanks

[Rich]

Hi testcorelinux
The fact that Tinycore will run on a 486DX allows people to build embedded appliances using low cost off the
shelf hardware, much of which is based on a 486 type processor. As far as code size is concerned, I'm not
sure how big a difference it would actually make. I'm currently working on a program that does a lot of data
manipulation, parsing, sorting, and file I/O. I just recompiled it using  -march=i686  instead of  -march=i486
and it compiled to exactly the same size.

[curaga]

Indeed, for example some of the Vortex86 cpus (which are still produced and sold) are 486 variants.

[testcorelinux]

Hi Rich
I just recompiled it using  -march=i686  instead of  -march=i486
and it compiled to exactly the same size.

But could there be a speed boost, though the size is the same?

If there were two separate compilations probably it will be a burden to you to maintain it also? Right? If there is a real speed boost this option could have been considered.

Thanks for the info.

[tinypoodle]

- The minimum specification i686 is targeted at is Pentium Pro, not Pentium IV.
- Not sure where you got the idea of "excessive coding" from - the result of Rich's experiment is not unexpected.
- "Lightweight (some?) Distros are making 486 or 386 as their minimum target" is not what I have percepted, rather that (certain) more recent distros would have a tendency towards i686 optimization.
  For example: Slackware which is a (if not THE) reference of a traditional full fledged Linux distro is sticking to i486 at current.

EDIT: Debian which most probably
1. is the most full fledged distro (most software packages)
2. is the distro with the most ports (including non-Linux GNU)
states: "Despite the architecture name "i386", support for actual 80386 processors (and their clones) was dropped with the Sarge (r3.1) release of Debian. All i486 and later processors are still supported"

[Rich]

Hi testcorelinux

But could there be a speed boost, though the size is the same?

No, I ran a  diff  on the two executables and they were identical.

[tinypoodle]

Now that's rather interesting...