On Wed, Nov 08, 2000 at 03:25:56AM +0000, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> On Tue, 7 Nov 2000, Jeff V. Merkey wrote:
>
> > If the compiler always aligned all functions and data on 16 byte
> > boundries (NetWare) for all i386 code, it would run a lot faster.
>
> Except on architectures where 16 byte alignment isn't optimal.
>
> > Cache line alignment could be an option in the loader .... after all,
> > it's hte loader that locates data in memory. If Linux were PE based,
> > relocation logic would be a snap with this model (like NT).
>
> Are you suggesting multiple files of differing alignments packed into
> a single kernel image, and have the loader select the correct one at
> runtime ? I really hope I've misinterpreted your intention.
Or more practically, a smart loader than could select a kernel image
based on arch and auto-detect to load the correct image. I don't really
think it matters much what mechanism is used.
What makes more sense is to pack multiple segments for different
processor architecures into a single executable package, and have the
loader pick the right one (the NT model). It could be used for
SMP and non-SMP images, though, as well as i386, i586, i686, etc.
Jeff
>
> regards,
>
> Davej.
>
> --
> | Dave Jones <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.suse.de/~davej
> | SuSE Labs
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