[net.unix-wizards] 11/70 Floating Point Query

tjc (07/02/82)

Wanted: information about the problem with Floating Point emulation
on the 11/70 with split I/D programs due to the wierdness of DEC's
MFPI instruction.

The normal FP emulation on an 11/70 without floating point hardware
will not work on a split I/D process because the MFPI required to get
at the trapping instruction (so it can be properly emulated) gets data
from the data space instead of instruction space.  DEC claims this is
correct (?).

I am aware of at least two possible fixes for this problem.  One
involves a simple back-plane wire change; the other involves
modification of the kernel to get at the instruction directly.

Does anyone have details (or pointers to details) about either of these
two solutions?  Please respond by mail.
	Tom Cook
	Bell Labs, Columbus
	cbosg!tjc