Kernel compiled for arm4 or arm7?

[stasheck]

Hi everyone,
I was researching B3 today (I don't own one yet), and I came upon the following comment (made in 2011):

On a side note, it’s generally a bad idea these days to use Debian for arm platforms, as they compile for an old arm4 standard. It’ll work, but you get a massive boost using Ubuntu’s arm7 instead. Of course, you can compile your self and ignore the entire issue as well.

(can't put source URL due to new user policy)

My question is: since B3 kernel's custom compiled, is it optimized for arm7? Is there a real difference in performance? If it's not, is it possible to compile for arm7 and still keep Excito-software on board?

[johannes]

Are you talking about the arm instruction set versions? The ARM in the B3 (Marvell Kirkwood 88F6281) is ARMv5 compliant, so if it's this you mean it wouldn't work compiled for ARMv7.

[stasheck]

Thanks, Johannes - not having B3, I could not check CPU capabilities.