From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Oct 14 14:03:54 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E21CE16A4CF for ; Thu, 14 Oct 2004 14:03:54 +0000 (GMT) Received: from smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (ns0.infracaninophile.co.uk [81.2.69.218]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4F20243D53 for ; Thu, 14 Oct 2004 14:03:53 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: from happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk (localhost.infracaninophile.co.uk [IPv6:::1])i9EE3pSc041632 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Thu, 14 Oct 2004 15:03:51 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from matthew@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: (from matthew@localhost)i9EE3pVn041631; Thu, 14 Oct 2004 15:03:51 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from matthew) Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 15:03:50 +0100 From: Matthew Seaman To: "Walker, Michael" Message-ID: <20041014140350.GA41396@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk> Mail-Followup-To: Matthew Seaman , "Walker, Michael" , Subhro , "Freebsd-Questions (E-mail)" References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="k+w/mQv8wyuph6w0" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-1.5.6 (smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk [IPv6:::1]); Thu, 14 Oct 2004 15:03:51 +0100 (BST) X-Virus-Scanned: clamd / ClamAV version devel-20040904, clamav-milter version 0.75l on smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk X-Virus-Status: Clean cc: Subhro cc: "Freebsd-Questions \(E-mail\)" Subject: Re: Compiling 4-RELEASE on 5-STABLE X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 14:03:55 -0000 --k+w/mQv8wyuph6w0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Thu, Oct 14, 2004 at 02:45:38PM +0100, Walker, Michael wrote: > [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org]On Behalf Of Subhro > >Yeh, I forgot to mention about the FPU. Thanks for adding up. =20 > Just on a side note here, could someone explain to me what a 'FPU-less' > system actually is? Ancient history. FPU means 'Floating Point Unit' -- ie. the bit of the CPU that handles arithmetic etc. on floading point numbers. Way back in the mists of processor pre-history, the original 8086 was an integer-only CPU. The same applied to the 80186, 80286 and 80386, although by that time it had grown a companion chip the 80n87 which held the FPU. By the time the 80486 came along, the FPU was incorporated into the main CPU silicon, although there were some cheapo 486 chips where the FPU had failed during manufacturing, sold as integer only processors. In order to run Unix on such systems, it was necessary to provide a software library to emulate the FPU system. FreeBSD actually came with a choice of two. All obsolete now. All other IA32 architecture CPUs have had a built in FPU as standard, as do all modern general purpose CPU chips. =20 Cheers, Matthew --=20 Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 26 The Paddocks Savill Way PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Marlow Tel: +44 1628 476614 Bucks., SL7 1TH UK --k+w/mQv8wyuph6w0 Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.6 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQFBbodGiD657aJF7eIRAtJcAJ0YSoDr/LSEp2VrEPvqg5SCCyj9QwCgi1IV X4bfikvrM2JBVJHr6wt8+ZQ= =KalM -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --k+w/mQv8wyuph6w0--