Re: Altivec and binary compatibility

[Adrian Cox <apc@agelectronics.co.uk>]

Rob Barris wrote:

> >> 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.

I know that the OS has to support these registers. Latest development
kernels *DO* support them.

That is not the problem.

The problem is with C++ exception sequences and setjmp being different
for Altivec and non-Altivec code. How does Linux on ia32 handle linking
between generic ia32 and Pentium-III user-space code? 

- Adrian Cox, AG Electronics