[Xen-devel] General questions on IA64 porting

["Philippe Berthault" <Philippe.Berthault@xxxxxxxx>]

I have now a new IA64 platform (a Bull NovaScale 4020, otherwise sayed an

Intel SR870BH2 platform) and I am ready to participate to the IA64 porting.

 

I have a few questions about the IA64 porting :

1) The IA64 porting in Xen seems to be stopped or sleeping.
Q: What is the status of Xen-IA64 development ?

 

2) In the Xen Users' manual, it is sayed "a port to the IA64 architecture

is approching completion". It's seems to be optimistic.
Q: When IA64 support will be officially available ?

 

3) Several limitations exist on Xen-IA32 (memory <= 4GB, no TLS support,
problem with AGP graphic cards, etc...).
Q: Is these limitations also apply on Xen-IA64 ?

 

4) Xen-IA32 supports SMP guest OSes.
Q: Is it true also on IA64 ?

 

5) The Xen architecture is planned to be integrated in Linux sources.
Q: Is this integration also applies to Xen-IA64 and at the same time
than Xen-IA32 or later ?

 

6) The Linux distributions for IA64 (ie: RHEL-3) are based on Linux 2.4 kernel.
Q: So why IA64 porting is based on Linux 2.6 kernel ? What is the reason ?

 

7) The RHEL (Red Hat Entreprise Linux) license doesn't permits to modify

or rebuilt the Linux kernel without losing the Red Hat support.
Q: So in case of problems on a customer site, who is responsible ?
Is Xen will provide a direct or indirect support in this case ?

 

8) How can I help you in the IA64 porting and/or testing ?

 

Thanks,
Philippe.