Compiling firmware with armv7hl architecture (hard float)

[m0thman]

Is that possible to compile asuswrt with armv7hl architecture for ASUS RT-AC68U? Does it support hard float? Router processor model is Broadcom BCM4708A0

 

[kvic]

I'm afraid BRCM was not generous enough to include the necessary transistors in BC4708. At least, that's what my AC56u tells me. I would love to hear the opposite..

 

[System Error Message]

All the ARM A9 CPUs used in broadcom are the same so if one of them doesnt support it than the rest wont. I suggest checking the ARM A9 variant used as it usually will have some kind of extension such as neon and all sorts of weird stuff. Hard floats can be less accurate than software floats but is many times faster.

Hopefully google's AP will mature in firmware since it has some really good hardware specs and were smart enough to use qualcomm krait 300 instead of the ARM A9. As i said before broadcom made a very poor choice using the ARM A9 and some say it has limited memory performance while the ARM A15 performs a lot better. The problem is that every router manufacturer making the same class of router uses this same broadcom CPU.

A qualcomm mobile chip typically has kraits, Hexagon CPU which can perform hardware accelerated sound, networking, etc even media encoding and a GPU. Theres a lot of potential in the mobile chip but does require some software development to make use of the extra processors and the GPU is basically a very fast parallel CPU for floats. They also sell development boards too and it should have PCIe/mini-PCIe so theres a place to add gigabit NICs. You may want to consider this for an openWRT project of building a fast router utilising the 3 different processors in a qualcomm mobile chip.