M. Edward (Ed) Borasky posted <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, excerpted below, on Sun, 30 Jan 2005 14:39:49 -0800:
> Speaking of 64 bit technologies, how far away is a Gentoo for Intel's EM64T? > > <grabbing a can opener and fishing tackle just in case worms are lurking> <my no special knowledge user's level opinion, blatently obviously opinionated as it may be, FWIW> I don't know the deep hardware stuff, but it's supposed to be x86_64 (from AMD) instruction compatible. Of course, optimizations will be different (and so it begins... the journey to the optimization maze of x86, on x86_64...), and the little hardware detail I've seen seems to be of the opinion that AMD64's performance lead in the area is going to be relatively safe for awhile, but the CPU instructions are the same. Thus, in general, I expect it will be part of the amd64 arch in Gentoo terms, and I doubt the name will change or they would have chosen the generic (if a whoppleganger to type) x86_64 from the beginning. Support has already been added to the kernel in general terms, altho obviously there will be optimization to do once there's enough actual hardware to test and do optimization on... The other piece of the puzzle is gcc. I really don't know where they are in terms of Intel x86_64 optimization, but I expect it will work with current gcc at least as well as gcc-3.3.x worked with amd64 if not better, again, due to it being the same instruction set, even if the optimization isn't the best for a few releases. Eventually, I expect Gentoo arch amd64 will treat the intel stuff (em64t is almost as bad as x86_64, but in a different way, at least x86_64 is memorable, because the two components actually mean something... em64t is just forgettable... so it's the intel's x86_64, to me, or just "intel stuff", once the context is clear) much the same as arch x86 treats the various CPUs from Intel/AMD/Via/whatever. It'll all still be considered amd64, or x86_64 if they genericize the name, but for the most part, each user will set their CFLAGS and the ebuilds will only have to check for and perhaps filterflag in the unusual case. Truth be told... while everyone with any level of informed opinion I know believes it's important for Intel to come out with this, as it will lend legitimacy to the platform in the eyes of some Dilbertonian PHBs that wouldn't otherwise consider it, and Intel can and will definitely bring a lot to the table in terms of marketing muscle and arch market share, I've seen nothing from anyone indicating that they seriously expect Intel to be a market technology leader until at least generation three (considering what we have gen1, the dual-cores of 2H2005 gen2...). It's almost as if everybody's thinking but afraid to come out and say it due to the obvious difference in size on the legacy x86 front, that AMD64 could be the continuing arch definer of x86_64 what Intel was and remains to x86. -- Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin -- gentoo-dev@gentoo.org mailing list
