Re: ramblings about old hardware, gzip, bz2, and pentium opts
The only thing that makes the 486 closer to modern CPUs is the floating point
instructions that were included in the 486DX. Note that the 486SX machines do
NOT have the floating point built in. Aside from the floating point
instructions being supported in all chips since that time, there is NOTHING
about the 486 that would speed up performance of the newer processors. So,
there's no reason to spend the time to make our default anything different than
what it is. The issue when talking about a "processor specific" build of a
package is that you are NOT talking about instructions, you are talking about
doing a re-compile for the WAY a processor handles it's instructions. Because
of that, if there is a major core difference, it won't help you. Pentium to
Pentium 2, means that Pentium 2 won't get better performance from a Pentium
version. You MAY see a SLIGHT improvement, but not worth the effort. From
Pentium 2 to Pentium 3, there was less of a change, so a Pentium 2 ver would
would fairly well on a Pentium 3. But it wouldn't do a thing for those with AMD
CPUs
Dave Bristel
On Mon, 6 Dec 1999, Tomasz Wegrzanowski wrote:
> Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1999 15:04:52 +0100
> From: Tomasz Wegrzanowski <maniek@beer.com>
> To: Aigars Mahinovs <aigarius@zednet.lv>
> Cc: debian-devel@lists.debian.org
> Subject: Re: ramblings about old hardware, gzip, bz2, and pentium opts
> Resent-Date: 6 Dec 1999 15:46:25 -0000
> Resent-From: debian-devel@lists.debian.org
> Resent-cc: recipient list not shown: ;
>
> On Sat, Dec 04, 1999 at 04:56:28PM -0200, Aigars Mahinovs wrote:
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> >
> > > > Debian should be compiled with Pentium optimisation []
> > > `pentium optimisations slows down 99% of all systems'
> > > You claim that Celeron / Cx 6x86 / PIII / K6 / Merced etc.
> > > are faster with 386-optimized soft than with Pentium-optimized soft
> > > Do you have any stats to prove it ???
> >
> > Anyway there are many people using Debian on 386 and 486 machines :(,
> > so IMHO it whould be VERY bad to compile the whole thing for
> > Pentiums.
> > At least the default optimisation should be 486 or even 386 so Debian
> > whould be usable on 386 and on some strange 486 and 586 which
> > sometimes
> > crash on 486/Pentium instructions.
> >
> > Also note that Pentium optimisation is not so good and popular
> > standart
> > as 386 or 486 optimisation.
>
> Didnt mean : use 486-or-better-only instructions
> Mean : use optimalizations for 486 using only 386-or-better instructions
> Is this ok ?
> 486 is much more similar to modern hardware than 386 was.
>
>
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