Date: Fri, 5 Dec 1997 00:34:12 -0800 From: Jonathan Mini <j_mini@efn.org> To: current@freebsd.org Subject: Vendor-specific processor hacks Message-ID: <19971205003412.04149@micron.mini.net>
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In light of the current F00F bug, and other vendor-specific hacks, such as the performance tuning for the Curix chipsets and Intel's floating-point bug, and other items of that issue, I would like to propose adding a set of options to define the vendor target range of the kernel. This would, in effect, allow for an easy method of conditionally compiling vendor-specific hacks. For example, the F00F hack would be wrapping in an #ifdef defined(I586_CPU) && (CPU_INTEL) && !defined(CPU_NO_F00F_HACK) /* ... */ #endif pair, and in the kernel you'd see : options CPU_INTEL #Enable Intel Quirks A CPU_vendor tag would be a very clean and easy way to manage these vendor-specific hacks, and it allows us to easily integrate new vendor bugfixes without affecting the people who don't have a processor from that vendor. (For example, all of my FreBSD boxes except for my crash machine are AMD chipsets, and I am soon going to be upgrading that machine to an AMD processor. The Intel F00F bug never affected me, and it never should. Beleive it or not, Club Intel folks, there are a lot more AMD machines out there than you think. :)) On the other hand, on the hypothetical event that an AMD processor bug ever appears, I would like to rest assured that a simple cvsup and recompile with my current config (with a CPU_AMD defined) would have the latest AMD bugfixes. -- Jonathan Mini Ingenious Productions Software Development P.O. Box 5693, Eugene, Or. 97405 "A child of five could understand this! Quick -- Fetch me a child of five."
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