Re: Altivec and binary compatibility

[Rob Barris <rbarris@quicksilver.com>]

>> > Because with Altivec we need to save V registers, right ?  Well, I suppose
>> > intel developers had the same problem with P-III "vector" unit. How
>>did they
>> > solve the problem ?
>>
>> As far as I can tell, by ignoring it, and making the assumption that
>> only low-level libraries will use the vector registers.

   This is not correct.  OS's on P-III have to be updated to provide proper
context switch support for the SSE registers.  I'm pretty sure Win98 has it
covered.  It's really the same type of jump as AltiVec - use of SSE
features is not restricted to OS or driver code, apps use them too.


--
Rob Barris       Quicksilver Software Inc.      rbarris@quicksilver.com