Debian MIPS Port

MIPS is one of the first RISC CPU architectures invented around 1985. It was a radical design which removed many features deemed unnecessary, since the goal was to get the best possible performance from a limited transistor count. Back then, MIPS were powerful general purpose CPUs, and very successful in that role, until they lost ground to systems based on cheap mass-produced Intel-compatible CPUs. Later on, the simple and elegant design allowed to create a wide range of low power CPUs targeted for embedded applications.

Today, MIPS is a popular architecture for embedded systems, with a strong presence in various networked devices, and spanning a range from 32-bit at 100 MHz to 64-bit at 1.2 Ghz. The current top-end is arguably the SC5832 made by SiCortex, a compact supercomputer with 5832 CPU cores dissipating 600 mW each.

The Debian 'mips' and 'mipsel' ports support a range of older workstations and servers as well as a few newer embedded devices. The Debian 'mips64el' port support the 64bit little endian CPUs, see mips64el for more information. All the Debian MIPS ports use the hard-float ABI. On CPUs without a floating-point unit, the kernel emulates the FPU instructions.

The global state of the development branch is tracked at mipsLennyReleaseRecertification.

A howto for installing a SGI Indy over network is available at NetworkBootingIndy.

Build daemons & porter boxes

Machine

Architecture

Sub-architecture

Purpose

FPU?

lucatelli.debian.org

mips

Cavium Octeon

buildd

No

gabrielli.debian.org

mips

Cavium Octeon

porter box

No

mips-aql-01.debian.org

mips

Cavium Octeon II

buildd

No

mips-aql-02.debian.org

mips

Cavium Octeon II

buildd

No

mips-aql-04.debian.org

mips

Cavium Octeon II

buildd

No

mips-aql-05.debian.org

mips

Cavium Octeon II

buildd

No

minkus.debian.org

mips

Cavium Octeon II

porter box

No

eberlin.debian.org

mipsel

Loongson 3A

buildd

Yes

eder.debian.org

mipsel

Loongson 2E

porterbox

Yes

eysler.debian.org

mipsel

Loongson 2E

buildd

Yes

mayer.debian.org

mipsel

SWARM

buildd

Yes

mipsel-aql-01.debian.org

mipsel

Loongson 3A

buildd

Yes

mipsel-aql-02.debian.org

mipsel

Loongson 3A

buildd

Yes

mipsel-manda-01.debian.org

mipsel

Loongson 3A

buildd

Yes

mipsel-manda-02.debian.org

mipsel

Loongson 3A

buildd

Yes

thor (vip.sparklingly.org:60022)

mips64el

Loongson 3A

porter box

Yes

Known issues

Package

Issue

Assigned-to

Status

Comments

gcc-4.4

#519006 PR45387

Aurelien Jarno

Solution offered

http://lists.debian.org/debian-mips/2010/08/msg00064.html

openjdk-6

FTBFS

Sometimes works, may depend on the buildd

Wishlist / Possible improvements