Re: [PATCH] fix debugging code compiled for newer PPC BookE processors

[Nathan Froyd <froydnj@codesourcery.com>]

On Tue, Nov 02, 2010 at 11:23:26AM -0700, Joel Brobecker wrote:
> > +      /* The type must be 2.  */
> > +      if (type != 2)
> > +	break;
> 
> So, the type must always be 2 and I am to understand that if type is not
> 2, then the data is screwed, hence the early exit? What's the purpose of
> that field, if it is always the same value?

I don't know exactly what the purpose is.  The E500 ABI User's Guide
says simply:

  For the .PPC.EMB.apuinfo section, the name shall be “APUinfo\0”, the
  type shall be 2 (as type 1 is already reserved for ELF_NOTE_ABI), and
  the data shall contain a series of words containing APU information,
  one per word. The APU information contains two unsigned halfwords: the
  upper half contains the unique APU identifier, and the lower half
  contains the revision of that APU.

So, there's the rationale.

-Nathan