Re: Developing code for ia64

[Arjan van de Ven <arjanv@redhat.com>]

"Hen, Shmulik" wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> When developing kernel drivers (module) for ia64, is it necessary to do it
> on an ia64 machine ?
> Our product contains a pre-compiled core object (IP protection :-\ ) and a
> set of wrapper source files, so for dual platform support the tar ball has
> to contain both an ia32 and ia64 versions of the executable. Is there any
> way to get an ia64 compiler (and libs) installed on an ia32 machine and use
> it to get ia64 compatible binaries ?

I would seriously recommend to intel to consider NOT doing this. Binary
only modules 
are generally frowned upon and there is (almost) never a good reason for
doing
them. If you're concerned about firmware, that's a totally different
issue,
binary firmware images can be done in a much simpler way.

But PLEASE don't do such a binary only module; I thought Intel was more 
Open Source friendly than that. (And I know most parts of Intel are; the
CPU folks and the networking folks are VERY helpful)

For one, almost no Linux distribution will ship with your drivers so
customers 
have go to a lot of hassle to compile their own drivers, and by doing
that
they loose all support from the community.

Greetings,
   Arjan van de Ven