OpenRISC SMP Support Is Getting Into Shape

While the OpenRISC architecture has been supported by the mainline Linux kernel, it hasn't supported symmetric multi-processing (SMP) for multi-core designs, but that is in the process of being changed.

Developer Stafford Horne sent out the latest set of patches for adding SMP/multi-core support to the OpenRISC code within the Linux kernel. This is based on work going back to 2012. So far this OpenRISC SMP support has been tested under QEMU. SMP has been supported by the OpenRISC architecture itself since version 1.2 of the ISA.

These latest OpenRISC SMP patches are being reviewed now on the kernel mailing list but at this point isn't clear if it will be ready for Linux 4.15.

Meanwhile, RISC-V is hoping to be mainlined in time for the upcoming 4.15 cycle.