ARM port consolidation

[David Holmes]

Hi Bob,

Looping in porters-dev, aarch32-port-dev and aarch64-port-dev.

I think this is a good idea.

Thanks,
David

On 5/06/2018 6:34 AM, Bob Vandette wrote:
> During the JDK 9 time frame, Oracle open sourced its 32-bit and 64-bit
> ARM ports and contributed them to OpenJDK.  These ports have been used for
> years in the embedded and mobile market, making them very stable and
> having the benefit of a single source base which can produce both 32 and
> 64-bit binaries.  The downside of this contribution is that it resulted
> in two 64-bit ARM implementations being available in OpenJDK.
> 
> I'd like to propose that we eliminate one of the 64-bit ARM ports and
> encourage everyone to enhance and support the remaining 32 and 64 bit
> ARM ports. This would avoid the creation of yet another port for these chip
> architectures.  The reduction of competing ports will allow everyone
> to focus their attention on a single 64-bit port rather than diluting
> our efforts.  This will result in a higher quality and a more performant
> implementation.
> 
> The community at large (especially RedHat, BellSoft, Linaro and Cavium)
> have done a great job of enhancing and keeping the AArch64 port up to
> date with current and new Hotspot features.  As a result, I propose that
> we standardize the 64-bit ARM implementation on this port.
> 
> If there are no objections, I will file a JEP to remove the 64-bit ARM
> port sources that reside in jdk/open/src/hotspot/src/cpu/arm
> along with any build logic.  This will leave the Oracle contributed
> 32-bit ARM port and the AArch64 64-bit ARM port.
> 
> Let me know what you all think,
> Bob Vandette
> 
>