[LLVMdev] is anyone using the alpha backend?

Chris Lattner
Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:20:01 -0000

On Oct 25, 2011, at 9:29 AM, David A. Greene wrote:

> Dan Gohman <gohman at apple.com> writes:
>
>> I'm removing old targets that no longer appear actively maintained,
>> to reduce the burden for target-independent codegen maintenance.
>>
>> Does anyone object to the removal of the Alpha backend?
>
> It would be a shame to lose it.  Alpha is an excellent example of a good
> RISC-style ISA.  There's at least one simulator out there that uses it.

In this case, I disagree.  The reality is that the Alpha target is not in as
good of shape as (e.g.) the Sparc backend, there really is almost no hardware,
and there are much better simulators for mips, sparc, arm, etc.

> What is the burden you are trying to reduce here?  I don't think we
> should be throwing out targets for the sake of throwing them out.
> Having multiple targets is a good way to ensure the target independent
> stuff stays target independent.

Having a target that isn't being used is just maintenance burden.

-Chris