Embedded RISC core vendor ARM says Linux 2.6 and the GNU tools now support the ARMv6 Instruction Set Architecture (ISA). ARMv6 patches were accepted from ARM kernel legend Russell King into the 2.6.0-test4 release, and ARM has worked to bring ARMv6 support to the GNU GCC tool chain as well.

ARMv6 is part of the ARM11 micro-architecture, licensed by ARM as intellectual property that can be incorporated into custom microprocessor designs. ARMv6 was previously supported by Symbian and other commercial OSes. It targets time-constrained environments such as consumer devices, networking, and wireless platforms, according to ARM.

ARMv6 optimizations in the 2.6 Linux kernel support new ARMv6 ISA features such as physical cache, application space identifiers (ASIDS), and use of atomic operations, according to ARM, resulting in “significant performance improvements.”

ARM says it has used and tested Linux (and other OSes) from an early stage in developing the ARM11 core family. It says it makes ongoing efforts to contribute to open source GNU and Linux distributions, and supports open source initiatives including CELF and the Open Source Foundation.

LinuxDevices.com's annual “Embedded Linux Snapshot” has shown the ARM architecture over-taking the x86 architecture in the last several years as the most popular architecture for embedded Linux development.

 
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