robe@bcarh54.bnr.ca (Rob Enns) (08/31/89)
Context: a BSD unix kernel, running on a 68030 based machine.
Does anyone know if it's possible to emulate a non-existent floating
point coprocessor through f-traps rather than using C library routines
do to floating point? That is, would it be possible to write an
exception handler to catch unimplemented f-traps (the fp coprocessor
instructions) and emulate them in software? Has it been done?
My gut feeling is that this is possible, but might get tricky if you
didn't want the application software to know that it was running on a
"virtual" fp coprocessor, because you would have to completely emulate
the hardware.
Any ideas, opinions, or pointers to further sources of information
would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Rob.
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Rob Enns, Bell Northern Research, Ottawa, Ontario
UUCP: ...utgpu!bnr-vpa!bnr-fos!bcarh54!robe
Internet: robe%bcarh54%bnr-fos%bnr-vpa@watmath.waterloo.edu