Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2010 12:52:22 -0600 (MDT) From: "M. Warner Losh" <imp@bsdimp.com> To: des@des.no Cc: deischen@freebsd.org, scottl@samsco.org, d@delphij.net, julian@elischer.org, freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Subject: Re: [PATCH] Utilize i686, SSE and MMX by default on FreeBSD/i386 Message-ID: <20100322.125222.690091871650369537.imp@bsdimp.com> In-Reply-To: <86y6hkiien.fsf@ds4.des.no> References: <4BA3E9DF.2050303@delphij.net> <Pine.GSO.4.64.1003191721371.25775@sea.ntplx.net> <86y6hkiien.fsf@ds4.des.no>
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In message: <86y6hkiien.fsf@ds4.des.no>
Dag-Erling Smørgrav <des@des.no> writes:
: Daniel Eischen <deischen@freebsd.org> writes:
: > Perhaps I was wrong, but I thought Scott's question was more general:
: > is there a desire for a special installation suitable to small
: > appliances (usually flash-based)?
:
: Not all "small appliances" are flash-based; the Geode-based soekris can
: use 2.5" disks and has enough memory to run a stock install. The only
: trouble I've had is with /etc/periodic/daily/470.status-named, which
: uses an ungodly amount of memory. The AMD Geode is more or less
: equivalent to a Pentium MMX, and does not have SSE.
:
: Soekris net4801-48:
:
: CPU: Geode(TM) Integrated Processor by National Semi (266.65-MHz 586-class CPU)
: Origin = "Geode by NSC" Id = 0x540 Stepping = 0
: Features=0x808131<FPU,TSC,MSR,CX8,CMOV,MMX>
: real memory = 134217728 (128 MB)
: avail memory = 126160896 (120 MB)
:
: Soekris net5501-70:
:
: CPU: Geode(TM) Integrated Processor by AMD PCS (499.91-MHz 586-class CPU)
: Origin = "AuthenticAMD" Id = 0x5a2 Stepping = 2
: Features=0x88a93d<FPU,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,CX8,SEP,PGE,CMOV,CLFLUSH,MMX>
: AMD Features=0xc0400000<MMX+,3DNow!+,3DNow!>
: real memory = 536870912 (512 MB)
: avail memory = 510726144 (487 MB)
You don't really get into the small to flash install realm until you
start hitting some of the !x86 embedded boxes. There, you have to
have a hand-crafted firmware load for each box or a limited range of
boxes. This is even true in linux land. You'll never use sysinstall
or anything remotely like it to install onto a Linksys WRT55G. you're
going to give the firmware loader a new firmware image via http or
simething like that.
So for the x86 case, there's not a good argument to be made for
hyperoptimizing GENERIC.
Warner
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