RFY630@MAINE.BITNET (Chris Winne) (08/02/90)
We have a RT6151, with an advanced processor card and floating point accelerator. However, when I issue the command fptype, the machine tells me I am using software emulation. The floating point accelerator has been installed with devices, and it checks out fine using diagnostics. I don't think it is really working however, since similar (image processing) programs take at least as long on this machine as on a zenith-286. The only strange thing I can find is in installation configuration, it finds the APC card and the FP card both in slot A, with nothing in slot B. Any suggestions (Why else would I write?)? Chris Winne RFY630@Maine (bitnet)
marc@stingray.austin.ibm.com (Marc J. Stephenson/140000;1C-22) (08/03/90)
You sure you got that right? When the command 'fptype' tells you that it is using software emulation, then that matches the configuration for a ROMP (not APC) without a floating point accelerator. There are 5 configurations: ROMP, no FPA = software emulation ROMP, FPA I = FPA I ROMP, FPA II = Advanced floating point accelerator APC, no FPA or FPA I = MC68881 (overrides FPA I, if there) APC, FPA II = Advanced floating point with DMA (best combo) Run dbx on anything (even /etc/passwd), run the 'registers' command, and see how many floating point registers show up. If it shows 32, you've got an FPA II, 8 + status = MC68881, 7 + status = FPA I or software emulation. I don't understand your diagnostics results. -- Marc Stephenson (marc@stingray.austin.ibm.com) DISCLAIMER: The content of this posting is independent of official IBM position. External: uunet!cs.utexas.edu!ibmaus!auschs!stingray.austin.ibm.com!marc Internal: marc@stingray.austin.ibm.com VNET: MARC at AUSVMQ T/L: 793-3796
RFY630@MAINE.BITNET (Chris Winne) (08/07/90)
I'm making some progress, but it is still a bit puzzling: The machines DOES have an APC card with a Floating Point accelerator. I have discovered that if I check out the floating point accelerator with diagnostics the command fptype will return the proper configuration (it may be all I have to do is load diagnostics, but I havn't slimmed down my testing that far yet), i.e. Floating Point Type = APC Card with MC68881. However this seems to be dropped after awhile (sometimes when PCSIM bombs, otherwise after normal shutdown). When software emulation is indicated, dbx shows 7 + status floating point registers, when APC Card with MC68881 is indicated, dbx shows 8 + status floating point registers. The file /etc/master shows floating = hardware nomatter what fptype returns. I know this seems strange, but that's the way it is.