Re: f@#$ing MMX emulator

David Luyer (luyer@ucs.uwa.edu.au)
Mon, 22 Jun 1998 12:03:37 +0800


> That bit is the issue. In the MMX case MMX is weird and wacky enough its
> unlikely to get generally used except in stuff like graphics libraries
>
> Alan

Well, that and Solar Designer's crypt() in his password cracker, Mingo's
tcp checksumming, maybe an optimized strcpy()/memcpy() [I haven't actually
seen an implementation of that, tho], well actually it looks like anywhere
where people are looking to hand-optimize MMX has been useful.

HOWEVER - these cases would DEFINITELY not want to be using emulated
MMX. If a compiler is taught about MMX, it will most likely end up using
it in inner loops. MMX compilers should be just like a K6 or Pentium
compiler - something not to be used for distribution binaries unless making
an MMX specialized distribution.

Quoting Sylvain,

> I agree with you, but people may want to execute a Win$ binary (under Wine),
> that is poorly written and assumes an MMX is present. We have already seen
> such behaviour from certain "software" makers, to force you to buy high-end
> hardware.

Then let WINE and DOSEMU handle the problem in user-land.

David.

-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu