From owner-freebsd-hackers Sat Jun 22 14: 2:32 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from smtp.comcast.net (smtp.comcast.net [24.153.64.2]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DCADF37B408 for ; Sat, 22 Jun 2002 14:02:21 -0700 (PDT) Received: from dallben (pcp529856pcs.nash01.tn.comcast.net [68.52.131.181]) by mtaout01.icomcast.net (iPlanet Messaging Server 5.1 HotFix 0.8 (built May 13 2002)) with ESMTP id <0GY4002OML2XS8@mtaout01.icomcast.net> for freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG; Sat, 22 Jun 2002 17:01:45 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 22 Jun 2002 16:01:44 -0500 (CDT) From: "Brandon D. Valentine" Subject: Re: LINT CPU features table In-reply-to: <20020622174615.GA53971@dan.emsphone.com> X-X-Sender: bandix@dallben.homeportal.2wire.net To: Dan Nelson Cc: Mike Silbersack , Lucky Green , freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Message-id: <20020622155537.T3524-100000@dallben.homeportal.2wire.net> MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Sat, 22 Jun 2002, Dan Nelson wrote: >In the last episode (Jun 22), Mike Silbersack said: >> On Sat, 22 Jun 2002, Lucky Green wrote: >> > Let me turn my original inquiry into an offer: I volunteer to write >> > the section for the Handbook or other documentation detailing the >> > various CPU options in LINT if somebody who fully understands what >> > these options do is willing to spend 30 minutes on the phone with >> > me answering questions about the options. >> >> Despite your enthusiasm, it's still a rather pointless exercise. To >> make explaining the cpu options worthwhile, you must show that only >> specifying I686 is sufficiently more optimal than specifying >> I686/I586/I486/I386. > >I think he's referring to the flotilla of CPU feature options, mainly >aimed at AMD and old Cyrix processors. [snip] I would argue that any effort put toward documenting this is better spent documenting something else. That particular "flotilla" of options relates entirely to a group of rather old, rather slow, and rather rare processors. The incidence of their use or necessity in the general FreeBSD user base is likely to be quite small. If you're running on asome ancient bastard child of Cyrix processor then chances are you're not running a performance critical application. At that level I say to anyone who tries to squeeze every last ounce of performance out of their CPU, "buy a faster CPU or UTFSL". Feel free to disagree and work on what interests you. Brandon D. Valentine -- http://www.geekpunk.net bandix@geekpunk.net ++[>++++++<-]>[<++++++>-]<.>++++[>+++++<-]>[<+++++>-]<+.+++++++..++ +.>>+++++[<++++++>-]<++.<<+++++++++++++++.>.+++.------.--------.>+. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message