@matthey
Ok, so Bi-endian support started after ARM6
Current generation ARM processors (from ARM6 onwards) have the option of operating in either little-endian or big-endian mode. I would be very suprised if anyone wanted to use older, pre ARM-6 arcitecture for porting and since the endian issue hasn't really been a thing since prior to ARM6, I don't know why this was even brought up. It's not a static little endian device like was suggested.
"GPUs built into SoCs have hardware registers which may be little endian also. Some buses like PCI use little endian by default. Most GPUs have better little endian support today."
Even IF this is the case, on board GPU standardisation means not breaking things between platform formats. Something AROS still struggles with using "known compatible hardware" even in x86 land for revisions of it's attempts at an OS port. The reason I mention it is because of the now standardisation of hardware, this becomes much easier to develop for. You just don't have to support a bunch of chipsets or configurations anymore.
I don't know about the lack of support. I found heaps of resources just with a flick of the Google search engine. http://netwinder.oregonstate.edu/pub/netwinder/docs/arm/Apps04vC.html
As for being openly hostile towards programmers due to using big-endian functionality, that sounds very subjective indeed. I doubt any manufacturer would pour in the requirement to include function and tape out functionality if people are going to be openly hostile towards it and therefore, never use it. That makes zero sense.
Anyhow, these were my main reasons for posting. The litte endian argument is only true post ARM-6 which, has been addressed some time ago. The rest is open to personal experiences and bias. Last edited by SHADES on 18-Apr-2021 at 11:37 PM. Last edited by SHADES on 18-Apr-2021 at 11:35 PM. Last edited by SHADES on 18-Apr-2021 at 11:34 PM. Last edited by SHADES on 18-Apr-2021 at 11:33 PM. Last edited by SHADES on 18-Apr-2021 at 11:32 PM.
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