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  <sect2 arch="sparc" id="sparc-cpus">
  <title>CPU and Main Boards Support</title>
<para>

Sparc-based hardware is divided into a number of different subarchitectures,
identified by one of the following names: sun4, sun4c, sun4d, sun4m, sun4u
or sun4v. The following list describes what machines they include and what
level of support may be expected for each of them.

</para>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>sun4, sun4c, sun4d</term>

<listitem><para>

These subarchitectures include some very old 32-bit machines, which are
no longer supported. For a complete list please consult the
<ulink url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARCstation">Wikipedia
SPARCstation page</ulink>.

</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term>sun4m</term>

<listitem><para>

sun4m is the only 32-bit subarchitecture (sparc32) that is currently
supported. The most popular machines belonging to this class are
Sparcstation 4, 5, 10 and 20.

</para><para>

Note that symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) &mdash; the ability to run
processes on multiple processors &mdash; is not supported on this hardware,
due to stability problems with such configurations. The available
uniprocessor (UP) sparc32 kernel will boot fine on multiprocessor
machines, although it will activate and use only the first CPU.

</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term>sun4u</term>

<listitem><para>

This subarchitecture includes all 64-bit machines (sparc64) based on
the UltraSparc processor and its clones. Most of the machines are well
supported, even though for some you may experience problems booting from
CD due to firmware or bootloader bugs (this problem may be worked around
by using netbooting). Use the sparc64 or sparc64-smp kernel in UP and SMP
configurations respectively.

</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>
<term>sun4v</term>

<listitem><para>

This is the newest addition to the Sparc family, which includes machines
based on the Niagara multi-core CPUs. At the moment such CPUs are only
available in T1000 and T2000 servers by Sun, and are well supported. Use
the sparc64-smp kernel.

</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>

<para>

Note that Fujitsu's SPARC64 CPUs used in PRIMEPOWER family of servers are not
supported due to lack of support in the Linux kernel.

</para>
  </sect2>