[En-Nut-Discussion] Removal of 8-bit AVR support (Re: STM32L051 and LPUART)

[Jonathan Woithe]

Hi Ulrich

On Mon, Oct 24, 2016 at 02:17:53PM +0200, Ulrich Prinz wrote:
> We are designing out AVR completely and so it doesn't make sense to keep
> complex build systems and 8-bit downwards compatibility for the cost of
> complex code.

This is worth knowing since we will be continuing to rely on the 8-bit AVR
capability for some time to come - it works well for our application and we
can't justify redesigning our systems for an alternative microcontroller at
this stage since it won't gain us anything practically.  I hadn't heard
about this AVR removal plan until now (however, I often only skim the
mailing list so I could easily have missed something earlier).  It means
we'll end up sticking with the last NutOS release to include AVR support,
whatever that turns out to be.  At present we are on 5.1.0.

I can understand the motivation behind the removal.  Aside from any security
fixes which crop up, a NutOS for 8-bit AVR has been complete for some time
now, and maintaining it within the larger NutOS context is therefore not
gaining anyone much.  The biggest changes recently have been to support
newer versions of gcc.  It doesn't mean it's not still useful though.  :-)

Is there any indication as to when 8-bit AVR will be removed from NutOS?
Presumedly the feature removal will be noted in the release notes at the
time.

Regards
  jonathan