CFV: New Project: PowerPC/AIX Port

[Chris Phillips @ T O]

Vote: Yes
On 14/05/12 10:46 AM, Simonis, Volker wrote:
> I hereby propose the creation of the "PowerPC/AIX Port" Project with
> Volker Simonis as the Lead and the Porters Group as the sponsoring Group.
>
> The goal of the project will be to provide full-featured and certifiable
> version of the OpenJDK on the Linux/PowerPC and AIX/PowerPC platforms which can
> be ultimately integrated into the main OpenJDK development branch.
>
> Besides the very fact that this project will enrich the OpenJDK platform
> coverage with two new platforms we see two more main benefits. By supporting
> the PowerPC architecture we will add the first weak memory architecture to the
> OpenJDK. As we already know from past experience, this will unveil all kinds
> of intricate memory ordering problems. Moreover, adding AIX as a new Unix
> flavor to the set of supported operating systems will uncover numerous
> implicit assumptions and shortcuts inside the code base which only hold true
> for Linux and Solaris. We strongly believe that fixing these issues will
> considerably increase the robustness and further portability of the OpenJDK.
>
> The technical approach and a brief project agenda are as follows:
> - provide an interpreter-only version of HotSpot based on the
>    CPP interpreter on Linux/PPC64
> - provide a full set of tools and class libraries for AIX and
>    Linux on PPC32/64
> - provide a complete certifiable JDK 7 on Linux/PPC64
> - provide a complete certifiable JDK 7 on AIX/PPC64
> - provide an implementation of the C2 server compiler on both
>    AIX/PPC64 and Linux/PPC64
> - integrate the new ports upstream into the main JDK8/9 branches
>
> To assist with project bootstrapping and maintain momentum of VM porting issues
> independently from class library issues the project will evolve an interface
> between the VM and class libraries that allows alternative implementations to
> be substituted (see [3]). The project will start by porting the stable JDK 7
> code base with a view to moving onto the JDK 8 stream as soon as practical.
>
> The project will have one, complete OpenJDK forest which will be initially
> cloned from the current jdk7u forest as well as a project mailing list and web
> site. We plan to start the project without a formal review process but this may
> change by the time the port gets more mature.
>
> The project will initially be driven jointly by IBM and SAP who both have a
> long-standing experience in developing and porting JDKs to various platforms
> including Linux/PowerPC and AIX/PowerPC. But as this is an open source project
> of course anybody interested is highly welcome to join the porting effort. The
> complete development process and discussions will happen in the open on the
> project mailing list.
>
> I will lead the project. I work for SAP in the SAP JVM JIT Compiling Technology
> group since more than 6 years and I'm an OpenJDK contributor right from the
> start (see [4], [5]).
>
> The initial committers will be:
> Jonathan Lu (IBM)
> Steve Poole (IBM)
> Neil Richards (IBM)
> Goetz Lindenmaier (SAP)
> Volker Simonis (SAP)
>
> Votes are due by May 28, 2012, 18:00 CET [6].
>
> Only current OpenJDK Members [1] are eligible to vote on this
> motion. Votes must be case in the open by replying to to this
> mailing list.
>
> For Lazy Consensus voting instructions, see [2].
>
> Volker Simonis
>
> [1] http://openjdk.java.net/census#members
> [2] http://openjdk.java.net/projects/#new-project-vote
> [3] http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/discuss/2012-May/002629.html
> [4] http://hg.openjdk.java.net/hsx/hotspot-main/hotspot/log?rev=simonis
> [5] http://hg.openjdk.java.net/jdk7/hotspot/hotspot/log?rev=simonis
> [6] http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=CFV%3A+New+Project%3A+PowerPC%2FAIX+Port&iso=20120528T18&p1=991
>
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