i586 has stayed backwards-compatible (although performance isn't the same if you...

obtu on March 6, 2012 | parent | context | favorite | on: Raspberry Pi interview: Eben Upton reveals all

i586 has stayed backwards-compatible (although performance isn't the same if you don't know what you're targeting), ARM hasn't. The raspberry pi's ARMv6 is very different from a Cortex's ARMv7. The kernel also needs patches to know how to initialise an ARM device, and those patches need to be forward-ported.

masklinn on March 6, 2012 [–]

I'm not denying that, I'm just saying nextparadigms's argument of chip age does not hold any water.