The basic components of the Linux family of operating systems, which are based on the

Linux kernel The Linux kernel is a free and open-source, monolithic, modular, multitasking, Unix-like operating system kernel. It was originally authored in 1991 by Linus Torvalds for his i386-based PC, and it was soon adopted as the kernel for the GNU ope ...

, the

GNU C Library The GNU C Library, commonly known as glibc, is the GNU Project's implementation of the C standard library. Despite its name, it now also directly supports C++ (and, indirectly, other programming languages). It was started in the 1980s by ...

, BusyBox or forks thereof like μClinux and

uClibc __NOTOC__ In computing, uClibc (sometimes written µClibc) is a small C standard library intended for Linux kernel-based operating systems for embedded systems and mobile devices. uClibc was written to support μClinux, a version of Linux not ...

, have been programmed with a certain level of abstraction in mind. Also, there are distinct code paths in the

assembly language In computer programming, assembly language (or assembler language, or symbolic machine code), often referred to simply as Assembly and commonly abbreviated as ASM or asm, is any low-level programming language with a very strong correspondence be ...

or C source code which support certain hardware. Therefore, the source code can be successfully compiled onor cross-compiled fora great number of computer architectures. Furthermore, the required

free and open-source software Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...

has also been developed to interface between Linux and the hardware Linux is to be executed on. For example, compilers are available, e.g. GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) and LLVM/ Clang. For cross-compilation a number of complete toolchains are available, like

GNU toolchain The GNU toolchain is a broad collection of programming tools produced by the GNU Project. These tools form a toolchain (a suite of tools used in a serial manner) used for developing software applications and operating systems. The GNU toolchain pl ...

, OpenWrt Buildroot or OpenEmbedded. The Yocto Project is targeted at embedded use cases. The

portability Portability may refer to: *Portability (social security), the portability of social security benefits * Porting, the ability of a computer program to be ported from one system to another in computer science ** Software portability, the portability ...

section of the

article contains information and references to technical details. Note that further components like a

display server In computing, a windowing system (or window system) is software that manages separately different parts of display screens. It is a type of graphical user interface (GUI) which implements the WIMP (windows, icons, menus, pointer) paradigm for ...

, or programs like Blender, can be present or absent. Fundamentally any software has to be ported, i.e. specifically adapted, to any kind of hardware it is supposed to be executed on. The level of abstraction that has been kept in mind while programming that software in the first place dictates the necessary effort. The relevant term is of the porting target is computer architecture; it comprises the

instruction set In computer science, an instruction set architecture (ISA), also called computer architecture, is an abstract model of a computer. A device that executes instructions described by that ISA, such as a central processing unit (CPU), is called an ' ...

(s) and the

microarchitecture In computer engineering, microarchitecture, also called computer organization and sometimes abbreviated as µarch or uarch, is the way a given instruction set architecture (ISA) is implemented in a particular processor. A given ISA may be impl ...

(s) of the

processor Processor may refer to: Computing Hardware * Processor (computing) **Central processing unit (CPU), the hardware within a computer that executes a program *** Microprocessor, a central processing unit contained on a single integrated circuit (I ...

(s), at least of the

CPU A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, and ...

. The target also comprises the "system design" of the entire system, be it a

supercomputer A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second ( FLOPS) instead of million instructions ...

, a

desktop computer A desktop computer (often abbreviated desktop) is a personal computer designed for regular use at a single location on or near a desk due to its size and power requirements. The most common configuration has a case that houses the power supply ...

or some SoC, e.g. in case some unique

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

is being used. In former times, the memory controller was part of the chipset on the

motherboard A motherboard (also called mainboard, main circuit board, mb, mboard, backplane board, base board, system board, logic board (only in Apple computers) or mobo) is the main printed circuit board (PCB) in general-purpose computers and other expand ...

and not on the CPU-

die Die, as a verb, refers to death, the cessation of life. Die may also refer to: Games * Die, singular of dice, small throwable objects used for producing random numbers Manufacturing * Die (integrated circuit), a rectangular piece of a semicondu ...

. Although the support of a specific instruction set is the task of the compiler, the software must be written with a certain level of abstraction in mind to make this portability possible. Any code written in Assembly language will be specific to the instruction set. The support of a specific microarchitecture includes optimizations for the CPU cache hierarchy, the TLB, etc.

Releases

* DEC Alpha (alpha) * Intel (Altera) NIOS II ARM - nios2 *

Analog Devices Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI), also known simply as Analog, is an American multinational semiconductor company specializing in data conversion, signal processing and power management technology, headquartered in Wilmington, Massachusetts. The co ...

Blackfin The Blackfin is a family of 16-/32-bit microprocessors developed, manufactured and marketed by Analog Devices. The processors have built-in, fixed-point digital signal processor (DSP) functionality supplied by 16-bit multiply–accumulates (MA ...

(supported sinc
2.6.22
and dropped sinc
4.17
(blackfin) *

Andes Technology Andes Technology Corporation is a Taiwanese supplier of 32/64-bit embedded CPU cores and a founding Premier member of RISC-V International Association. It focuses on the embedded market and delivers CPU cores with integrated development environmen ...

NDS32 (nd32) (dropped in v5.18.6 kernel) * ARM family of instruction sets (32- and 64-bit) (arm and arm64): ** Acorn Archimedes and RiscPC series (original machines were supported in 2.6.22) ** Allwinner ** Apple M series processors ** Broadcom VideoCore ** DEC StrongARM **

Samsung Exynos Exynos, formerly Hummingbird (), is a series of ARM-based system-on-chips developed by Samsung Electronics' System LSI division and manufactured by Samsung Foundry. It is a continuation of Samsung's earlier S3C, S5L and S5P line of SoCs. Exy ...

** Marvell (formerly Intel) XScale **

Sharp Zaurus The Sharp Zaurus is the name of a series of personal digital assistants (PDAs) made by Sharp Corporation. The Zaurus was the most popular PDA during the 1990s in Japan and was based on a proprietary operating system. The first Sharp PDA to use t ...

** HiSilicon ** iPAQ ** Palm, Inc.'s Tungsten Handheld ** Gamepark Holdings' GP2X **

Open Pandora The Pandora is an operating system, handheld game console and mobile personal computer originally released in 2010. It is designed to take advantage of existing free and open-source software and to be a target for homebrew development. It incl ...

** MediaTek **

Nokia 770 Internet Tablet The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet is a wireless Internet appliance from Nokia, originally announced at the LinuxWorld Summit in New York City on 25 May 2005. It is designed for wireless Internet browsing and email functions and includes software such ...

** Nokia N800 ** Nokia N810 ** Nokia N900 ** Nomadik ** NovaThor (discontinued) ** gumstix ** Sony Mylo **

Qualcomm Snapdragon Snapdragon is a suite of system on a chip (SoC) semiconductor products for mobile devices designed and marketed by Qualcomm Technologies Inc. The Snapdragon's central processing unit (CPU) uses the ARM architecture. A single SoC may include mu ...

** Nvidia Tegra ** TI OMAP ** Psion 5, 5MX, Series 7, netBook ** Rockchip ** Some Models of Apple

iPod The iPod is a discontinued series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The first version was released on October 23, 2001, about months after the Macintosh version of iTunes ...

s (see iPodLinux) ** OpenMoko Neo 1973, Neo FreeRunner ** Freescale's (formerly Motorola's)

i.MX The i.MX range is a family of Freescale Semiconductor (now part of NXP) proprietary microcontrollers for multimedia applications based on the ARM architecture and focused on low-power consumption. The i.MX application processors are SoCs (System ...

multimedia processors *

Atmel Atmel Corporation was a creator and manufacturer of semiconductors before being subsumed by Microchip Technology in 2016. Atmel was founded in 1984. The company focused on embedded systems built around microcontrollers. Its products included micr ...

AVR32 AVR32 is a 32-bit RISC microcontroller architecture produced by Atmel. The microcontroller architecture was designed by a handful of people educated at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, including lead designer Øyvind Strøm an ...

(dropped since 4.12) (avr32) * C-SKY * Axis Communications' ETRAX CRIS (dropped since 4.17) * Texas Instruments TMS320 family of DSPs from Texas Instruments ** TMS320C64x (c6x) (dropped in v5.18.6 kernel) * Freescale's (formerly Motorola's)

68k The Motorola 68000 series (also known as 680x0, m68000, m68k, or 68k) is a family of 32-bit complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessors. During the 1980s and early 1990s, they were popular in personal computers and workstations and w ...

architecture (68020, 68030, 68040, 68060) (m68k): ** Some

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

A1200 The Amiga 1200, or A1200 (code-named " Channel Z"), is a personal computer in the Amiga computer family released by Commodore International, aimed at the home computer market. It was launched on October 21, 1992, at a base price of £399 in the ...

, A2500, A3000, A4000 ** Apple

Macintosh II The Macintosh II is a personal computer designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer from March 1987 to January 1990. Based on the Motorola 68020 32-bit CPU, it is the first Macintosh supporting color graphics. When introduced, a basic sys ...

, LC, Quadra, Centris and early

Performa The Macintosh Performa is a family of personal computers designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Inc., Apple Computer, Inc. from 1992 to 1997. The Performa brand re-used models from Apple's Macintosh Quadra, Quadra, Macintosh Centris, Centri ...

series **Some Atari computers (TT and Falcon030) *

Fujitsu is a Japanese multinational information and communications technology equipment and services corporation, established in 1935 and headquartered in Tokyo. Fujitsu is the world's sixth-largest IT services provider by annual revenue, and the la ...

FR-V (dropped since 4.17) (frv) * Qualcomm Hexagon (hexagon) *

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

's PA-RISC (parisc) * H8 architecture from Renesas Technology, formerly Hitachi (h8300) ** H8/300 ** H8/500 * International Business Machines ( IBM) ** System/390 (

31-bit In computer architecture, 31-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are 31 bits wide. In 1983, IBM introduced 31-bit addressing in the System/370-XA mainframe architecture as an upgrade to the 24-bit physical and vir ...

) (s390) **

z/Architecture z/Architecture, initially and briefly called ESA Modal Extensions (ESAME), is IBM's 64-bit complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architecture, implemented by its mainframe computers. IBM introduced its first z/Architecture-b ...

( IBM Z and IBM LinuxONE) ( 64-bit) (s390x) *

Imagination META The META is a 32-bit multithreaded microprocessor developed by Metagence Technologies Division from Imagination Technologies. First version of META were developed in 2001 as META-1 multithreaded DSP core aimed for audio, radio and video processin ...

(dropped since 4.17) * Intel IA-64 Itanium, Itanium II (ia64) * x86 architecture (x86): ** IBM PC compatibles using IA-32 and x86-64 processors: *** Intel 80386 (dropped since 3.8),

80486 The Intel 486, officially named i486 and also known as 80486, is a microprocessor. It is a higher-performance follow-up to the Intel 386. The i486 was introduced in 1989. It represents the fourth generation of binary compatible CPUs following the ...

, and their AMD,

Cyrix Cyrix Corporation was a microprocessor developer that was founded in 1988 in Richardson, Texas, as a specialist supplier of floating point units for 286 and 386 microprocessors. The company was founded by Tom Brightman and Jerry Rogers. In 19 ...

, Texas Instruments and IBM variants *** The entire Pentium series and its Celeron and Xeon variants *** Intel Core processors *** AMD 5x86, K5, K6, Athlon (all 32-bit versions), Duron,

Sempron Sempron has been the marketing name used by AMD for several different budget desktop CPUs, using several different technologies and CPU socket formats. The Sempron replaced the AMD Duron processor and competed against Intel's Celeron series of pr ...

*** x86-64: 64-bit processor architecture, now officially known as AMD64 (AMD) or Intel64 (Intel); supported by the

Athlon 64 The Athlon 64 is a ninth-generation, AMD64-architecture microprocessor produced by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), released on September 23, 2003. It is the third processor to bear the name ''Athlon'', and the immediate successor to the Athlon XP. T ...

, Opteron and Intel Core 2 processors, among others *** Cyrix 5x86, 6x86 (M1), 6x86MX and MediaGX (National/AMD Geode) series *** VIA Technologies Eden (Samuel II), VIA C3, and VIA C7 processors (all 32-bit) and VIA Nano (x86-64) ** Microsoft's Xbox (Pentium III processor), through the Xbox Linux project **

SGI Visual Workstation SGI Visual Workstation is a series of workstation computers that are designed and manufactured by SGI. Unlike its other product lines, which used the 64-bit MIPS RISC architecture, the line used Intel Pentium II and III processors and shipped ...

(Pentium II/III processor(s) with SGI chipset) **

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Sun for short) was an American technology company that sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services and created the Java programming language, the Solaris operating system, ZFS, the ...

Sun386i The Sun386i (codenamed ''Roadrunner'') is a discontinued hybrid UNIX workstation/PC compatible computer system produced by Sun Microsystems, launched in 1988. It is based on the Intel 80386 microprocessor but shares many features with the contemp ...

workstation (80386 and 80486) ** Support for 8086, 8088, 80186,

80188 The Intel 80188 microprocessor was a variant of the Intel 80186. The 80188 had an 8-bit external data bus instead of the 16-bit bus of the 80186; this made it less expensive to connect to peripherals. The 16-bit registers and the one megabyte add ...

and 80286 CPUs is under development (the ELKS fork) * M32R from

Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 1870 ...

(dropped since 4.17) (m32r) * Microblaze from Xilinx (microblaze) * MIPS architecture (mips): **

Dingoo The Dingoo is a handheld gaming console that supports music and video playback and open game development. The system features an on-board radio and recording program. It is available to consumers in three colors: white, black, and pink. It was r ...

** Infineon's Amazon & Danube Network Processors ** Ingenic Jz4740 ** Loongson (MIPS-compatible), and models 2 and 2E, from BLX IC Design Ltd (

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

) ** Some

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

models, through the PS2 Linux project **

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...

uClinux 2.4.19 por

** Broadcom wireless chipsets **

Dreambox Dreambox is a series of Linux-powered DVB satellite, terrestrial and cable digital television receivers (set-top boxes), produced by German multimedia vendor Dream Multimedia. History and description The Linux-based production software origin ...

(HD models) ** Cavium Octeon packet processors *

MN103 The MN103 is a 32-bit microprocessor series developed by Matsushita Electric Industrial, now Panasonic Corporation. Most variants include a media processor, working as an image processor or video processor. It is used in digital cameras, set-top box ...

from Panasonic Corporation (dropped since 4.17) (mn10300) * OpenRISC (openrisc) ** OpenRISC 1000 family in the mainline Linux Kernel as of 3.1 ** Beyond Semiconductor OR1200 ** Beyond Semiconductor OR1210 *

Power ISA Power ISA is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) currently developed by the OpenPOWER Foundation, led by IBM. It was originally developed by IBM and the now-defunct Power.org industry group. Power IS ...

: ** IBM Servers *

PowerPC PowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple Inc., App ...

architecture (powerpc): ** IBM's Cell ** Most pre-Intel Apple computers (all PCI-based Power Macintoshes, limited support for the older

NuBus NuBus (pron. 'New Bus') is a 32-bit parallel computer bus, originally developed at MIT and standardized in 1987 as a part of the NuMachine workstation project. The first complete implementation of the NuBus was done by Western Digital for th ...

Power Macs) ** Clones of the PCI Power Mac marketed by

Power Computing Power Computing Corporation (often referred to as Power Computing) was the first company selected by Apple Inc to create Macintosh-compatible computers (" Mac clones"). Stephen “Steve” Kahng, a computer engineer best known for his design of t ...

UMAX UMAX is a domestic interline intermodal freight transport program that provides shipping and logistics of containers. The program is a partnership; its parent companies are Union Pacific Railroad and CSX. Launched March 29, 2010, UMAX has a fl ...

and Motorola ** Amigas upgraded with a "Power-UP" card (such as the Blizzard or CyberStorm) ** AmigaOne motherboard from Eyetech Group Ltd ( UK) **

Samantha Samantha (or the alternatively Samanta) is primarily used as a feminine given name. It was recorded in England in 1633 in Newton Regis, Warwickshire. It was also recorded in the 18th century in New England, but its etymology is uncertain. Specu ...

from Soft3 (Italy) ** IBM RS/6000, AS/400 and

pSeries The IBM System p is a high-end line of RISC (Power)/UNIX-based servers. It was the successor of the RS/6000 line, and predecessor of the IBM Power Systems server series. History The previous RS/6000 line was originally a line of workstations an ...

systems ** Pegasos I and II boards from Genesi ** Nintendo GameCube and

Wii The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...

, through Nintendo GameCube Linux ** Project

BlackDog Blackdog is a hamlet approximately 2 miles north of the city limits of Aberdeen, Scotland. The nearby area serves as a shooting ground,

from Realm Systems, Inc. ** Sony PlayStation 3 ** Microsoft's Xbox 360, through the

free60 Free60 is the successor to the Xbox Linux Project that aims to put Linux, BSD, or Darwin on the Microsoft Xbox 360 using a software or hardware based "hack". The Xbox 360 uses hardware encryption and will not run unsigned code out of the box. The ...

project ** V-Dragon CPU from Culturecom ** Virtex II Pro

field-programmable gate array A field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is an integrated circuit designed to be configured by a customer or a designer after manufacturinghence the term '' field-programmable''. The FPGA configuration is generally specified using a hardware d ...

(FPGA) from Xilinx with PowerPC cores **

(non-HD models) * RISC-V * SPARC (sparc) ** SPARC (32-bit): *** Sun-4 (dropped since 2.6.27) *** SPARCstation/SPARCserver series (sun4m, sun4d) sun4c (dropped since version 3.5) *** LEON ** UltraSPARC (64-bit): ***

Sun Ultra series The Sun Ultra series is a discontinued line of workstation and server computers developed and sold by Sun Microsystems, comprising two distinct generations. The original line was introduced in 1995 and discontinued in 2001. This generation wa ...

*** Sun Blade ***

Sun Fire Fire is a series of server computers introduced in 2001 by Sun Microsystems (since 2010, part of Oracle Corporation). The Sun Fire branding coincided with the introduction of the UltraSPARC III processor, superseding the UltraSPARC II-ba ...

*** SPARC Enterprise systems, also the based on the UltraSPARC T1, UltraSPARC T2,

UltraSPARC T3 The UltraSPARC is a microprocessor developed by Sun Microsystems and fabricated by Texas Instruments, introduced in mid-1995. It is the first microprocessor from Sun to implement the 64-bit SPARC V9 instruction set architecture (ISA). Marc Trembl ...

, and Ultra SPARC T4 processors * SuperH (sh) **

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

Dreamcast (SuperH SH4) ** HP

Jornada Jornada originally an old Spanish word for a day's walk or journey, often indicating a difficult one, can refer to: Places * Jornada del Muerto, New Mexico * Jornada del Muerto Volcano Newspapers * ''Jornada'' (La Paz), a newspaper published i ...

680 through

Jlime Jornada Linux Mobility Edition or JLime is a Linux distribution originally aimed for the HP Jornada platform. It was created in late 2003 by Kristoffer Ericson and Henk Brunstin. It is developed using the OpenEmbedded build system. History and ...

distribution (SuperH SH3) * Synopsys DesignWare ARC cores, originally developed by ARC International (arc) * S+core (dropped since 4.17) (score) *

Tilera Tilera Corporation was a fabless semiconductor company focusing on manycore embedded processor design. The company shipped multiple processors, including the TILE64, TILE''Pro''64, and the TILE''Pro''36, TILE-Gx72, TILE-Gx36, TILE-Gx16 and TILE-G ...

(dropped since 4.17) * Xtensa from Tensilica *

UniCore32 UNICORE (UNiform Interface to COmputing REsources) is a grid computing technology for resources such as supercomputers or computer cluster, cluster systems and information stored in databases. UNICORE was developed in two projects funded by the ...

(unicore32) Additional processors (particularly Freescale's 68000 and

ColdFire The NXP ColdFire is a microprocessor that derives from the Motorola 68000 family architecture, manufactured for embedded systems development by NXP Semiconductors. It was formerly manufactured by Freescale Semiconductor (formerly the semiconductor ...

) are supported by the MMU-less μClinux variant.

References

External links

*
BlueCat Linux Kernel Porting Guide
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Linux Supported Architectures Portability and supported architectures

Releases

See also

References

External links