On Thu, Oct 14, 2004 at 02:45:38PM +0100, Walker, Michael wrote: > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Subhro
> >Yeh, I forgot to mention about the FPU. Thanks for adding up. > Just on a side note here, could someone explain to me what a 'FPU-less' > system actually is? Ancient history. FPU means 'Floating Point Unit' -- ie. the bit of the CPU that handles arithmetic etc. on floading point numbers. Way back in the mists of processor pre-history, the original 8086 was an integer-only CPU. The same applied to the 80186, 80286 and 80386, although by that time it had grown a companion chip the 80n87 which held the FPU. By the time the 80486 came along, the FPU was incorporated into the main CPU silicon, although there were some cheapo 486 chips where the FPU had failed during manufacturing, sold as integer only processors. In order to run Unix on such systems, it was necessary to provide a software library to emulate the FPU system. FreeBSD actually came with a choice of two. All obsolete now. All other IA32 architecture CPUs have had a built in FPU as standard, as do all modern general purpose CPU chips. Cheers, Matthew -- Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 26 The Paddocks Savill Way PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Marlow Tel: +44 1628 476614 Bucks., SL7 1TH UK
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