From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Nov 8 03:23:31 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CCE6116A41F for ; Tue, 8 Nov 2005 03:23:31 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from craig@feniz.gank.org) Received: from ion.gank.org (ion.gank.org [69.55.238.164]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9513843D45 for ; Tue, 8 Nov 2005 03:23:31 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from craig@feniz.gank.org) Received: by ion.gank.org (mail, from userid 1001) id BA6D32C278; Mon, 7 Nov 2005 21:23:30 -0600 (CST) Date: Mon, 7 Nov 2005 21:23:28 -0600 From: Craig Boston To: Joel Hatton Message-ID: <20051108032328.GA3544@nowhere> Mail-Followup-To: Craig Boston , Joel Hatton , freebsd-stable@freebsd.org References: <20051107151050.GA1212@nowhere> <200511080205.jA825Dbl046080@app.auscert.org.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <200511080205.jA825Dbl046080@app.auscert.org.au> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i Cc: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: 5.x, 6.x and CPUTYPE X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 08 Nov 2005 03:23:31 -0000 On Tue, Nov 08, 2005 at 12:05:13PM +1000, Joel Hatton wrote: > Thanks, Craig. I'm glad to hear that I'm not alone in pursuing this method. > Do you know of any particular disadvantages of continuing with this > less-than-optimised model - I guess I mean, is this something that is > likely to break or become uneconomical at some point? It won't break; after all the release binaries are targeted for 386 (or maybe 486 now) in order to be able to run on anything. You might need to update make.conf with the "pentiumpro" name just in case they ever drop the i686 alias, but that's about it. You might not get quite as good performance as if you compiled for exactly your CPU (keep in mind we're probably talking about 1-2% at most unless you have a VERY specific workload that SSE could benefit), but IMO it's more than worth it to be able to plug the hard drives into a similar machine and have things Just Work. Personally, I pick i686 (pentiumpro) as a good middle ground. The features optimized for by that are present in every modern x86-architecture CPU: P2, P3, P4, Athlon, etc. So it's unlikely you'll run into something older than that. Also, the ppro has most of the features that really affect performance -- i.e. the gap between 386/486 and 686 is a lot bigger than the gap between 686 and P3/P4. P3s/P-M and Athlons especially are fairly smart and will optimize a lot of things at runtime. P4s are probably where you'll see the biggest performance hit -- that's where Intel tried to push a lot off it off on the compiler. Craig