From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Dec 29 21:17:07 2003 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 00A3B16A4CE for ; Mon, 29 Dec 2003 21:17:07 -0800 (PST) Received: from dan.emsphone.com (dan.emsphone.com [199.67.51.101]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EEF5043D31 for ; Mon, 29 Dec 2003 21:17:05 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from dan@dan.emsphone.com) Received: (from dan@localhost) by dan.emsphone.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) id hBU5GVv0041372; Mon, 29 Dec 2003 23:16:31 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from dan) Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2003 23:16:31 -0600 From: Dan Nelson To: Nigel Weeks Message-ID: <20031230051631.GA64644@dan.emsphone.com> References: <00b401c3ce8a$9f447ba0$030aa8c0@corp.eeasy.com.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <00b401c3ce8a$9f447ba0$030aa8c0@corp.eeasy.com.au> X-OS: FreeBSD 5.2-CURRENT X-message-flag: Outlook Error User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.5.1i cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Is it true?... 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: Tue, 30 Dec 2003 05:17:07 -0000 In the last episode (Dec 30), Nigel Weeks said: > If I have 'MATH_EMULATE' in my kernel, will it: > > A. Detect that the processor has a hardware FPU, and use that instead > B. Use the software one, ignoring the hardware FPU? > > (Hopefully the latter - a performance jump will be nice...) The former. Hardware FPU is much faster than software emulation. MATH_EMULATE is only necessary for CPUs with no hardware FP at all (386sx or possibly embedded 486-class CPUs). -- Dan Nelson dnelson@allantgroup.com