Advertise our x86-64-v3 packages

Signed-off-by: Andreas K. Hüttel <dilfridge@gentoo.org>

1 files changed, 69 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/_posts/2024-02-04-x86-64-v3.md b/_posts/2024-02-04-x86-64-v3.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2278ec0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/_posts/2024-02-04-x86-64-v3.md
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+---
+title: 'Gentoo x86-64-v3 binary packages available!'
+---
+
+<a href="https://www.gentoo.org/news/2024/02/04/x86-64-v3.html" class="news-img-right">
+  <img src="https://www.gentoo.org/assets/img/news/2024/larry-packages.png" alt="Larry the cow with packages"/>
+</a>
+
+End of December 2023 we already made our <a href="https://www.gentoo.org/news/2023/12/29/Gentoo-binary.html">official
+announcement of binary Gentoo package hosting</a>. The initial package set for amd64 was and is 
+base-line x86-64, i.e., it should work on any 64bit Intel or AMD machine. Now, we are happy to
+announce that there is also a separate package set using the <b>extended 
+x86-64-v3 ISA</b> available for the same software. If your hardware supports it, use it and enjoy the speed-up! 
+<a href="https://www.gentoo.org/news/2024/02/04/x86-64-v3.html">Read on for more details...</a>
+
+<!--more-->
+
+## Questions & Answers
+
+### How can I check if my machine supports x86-64-v3?
+
+The easiest way to do this is to use glibc's dynamic linker:
+```
+larry@noumea ~ $ ld.so --help
+Usage: ld.so [OPTION]... EXECUTABLE-FILE [ARGS-FOR-PROGRAM...]
+You have invoked 'ld.so', the program interpreter for dynamically-linked
+ELF programs.  Usually, the program interpreter is invoked automatically
+when a dynamically-linked executable is started.
+[...]
+[...]
+
+Subdirectories of glibc-hwcaps directories, in priority order:
+  x86-64-v4
+  x86-64-v3 (supported, searched)
+  x86-64-v2 (supported, searched)
+larry@noumea ~ $ 
+```
+As you can see, this laptop supports x86-64-v2 and x86-64-v3, but not x86-64-v4.
+
+### How do I use the new x86-64-v3 packages?
+
+On your amd64 machine, edit the configuration file in `/etc/portage/binrepos.conf/`
+that defines the URI from where the packages are downloaded, and replace `x86-64` with
+`x86-64-v3`. E.g., if you have so far
+```
+sync-uri = https://ftp.fau.de/gentoo/releases/amd64/binpackages/17.1/x86-64/
+```
+then you change the URI to
+```
+sync-uri = https://ftp.fau.de/gentoo/releases/amd64/binpackages/17.1/x86-64-v3/
+```
+That's all.
+
+### Why don't you have x86-64-v4 packages?
+
+There's not yet enough hardware and people out there that could use them.
+
+We could start building such packages at any time (our build host is new and 
+shiny), but for now we recommend you build from source and use your
+own CFLAGS then. After all, if your machine supports x86-64-v4, it's definitely fast...
+
+### Why is there recently so much noise about x86-64-v3 support in Linux distros?
+
+Beats us. The ISA is 9 years old (just the tag x86-64-v3 was slapped onto
+it recently), so you'd think binaries would have been generated by now. 
+With Gentoo you could've done (and probably have done) it all the time.
+
+That said, in some processor lines (i.e. Atom), support for this instruction
+set was introduced rather late (2021).