Re: GCC 4.1 now the default GCC version for etch
On Tue, Jun 20, 2006 at 09:17:08AM -0400, Lennart Sorensen wrote:
> So goodbye to mmx, and various other crap thigns. x87 is supported on
> current CPUs but there are feature flags that will permit the removal of
> x87 support in the future. Both linux and windows encourage the use of
> sse instead of x87 for floating point, and I believe all compilers by
> default do so in long mode for all current OSs that support amd64, so
> the removal shouldn't be a problem sometime in the future (although
> doing so would I suppose prevent running 32bit floating point
> applications anymore without recompiling those for sse.)
The lack of x87 wouldn't be a problem. At least, i386 still has the
code left from the old days and will emulate it transparently; when
such an amd64 CPU pops out the x87 emulation can be ported.
In fact, it has a separate hardware path from all other types of
unknown opcodes (INT7 instead of INT6); x87 was _designed_ to be
emulated if not present from the very start.
Cheers,
--
1KB // Microsoft corollary to Hanlon's razor:
// Never attribute to stupidity what can be
// adequately explained by malice.
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