Functionality to deprecate before GROMACS 2021 is released
We prefer to deprecate something before we remove it, so that users have time to adapt, plan, and perhaps discuss with the developers.
Note that deprecate does not mean "remove immediately." We're announcing deprecation so that the developers have the option to remove it without unduly surprising the users, and users may have an opportunity to discuss the deprecation before removal happens. It has often been the case that deprecated functionality is not removed for some years after, though this is not a general promise.
Suggested functionality to deprecate
- legacy SIMD architectures (Power 7 ie impl_arch_vmx (see discussion at !870 (merged)), impl_arch_neon (not impl_arch_neon_asimd), impl_x86_mic)
- MIC support (KNC is no longer used in HPC; KNL will remain working even when MIC is removed)
- mdrun-only build #3808 (closed)
- OpenCL (but we leave pulling it out until we've got something running on both Intel and AMD devices that seems good compared to OpenCL)
- hwloc 1.x
- legacy API (not just headers, see Eric's comment below)
- .pdo file reading in
gmx wham