Linux x86 32-bit Patches Clean Old Kernel Code After Recently Removing Vintage CPUs

With the Linux kernek having phased out i486 CPU support and dropping old AMD Elan SoC code along with removing other obsolete and stagnate 32-bit x86 hardware support, some x86 32-bit clean-ups are proceeding along with being able to make the kernel depend unconditionally now on some features. Linux developer Arnd Bergmann sent out some new/updated patches on Thursday for cleaning up the x86 32-bit code that is now possible following the removal of those older 32-bit CPUs. The patches remove some unneeded code as well as making the x86 32-bit kernel code a bit more like x86_64 and other improvements. Some lingering AMD Elan remnants are removed, TSC support is now made unconditional for the Time Stamp Counter, CX8 (Compare and Exchange 8 Bytes) is now made unconditional, the x86 kernel now requires a minimum of 64 byte cache lines, simplifying the 32-bit instruction set selection, and removing some other unneeded dependencies. Those interested in the x86 32-bit code cleanups for the Linux kernel can find the patch series on the LKML.