tron1@tronsbox.xei.com (HIM) (12/19/90)
I have a 386 motherboard from the dawn of time sitting here , 8 MEG ram , 385meg HD (split between SCSI and ST506/Perstore) with VGA and so on. I like the system, and recently got a free 80287 to put on it ... Yes, 80287! This motherboard is from a million years ago and has no 80387 socket. So , on the '287 goes. Does anyone know if the ISC kernel will find and use it ? Is there a DIFINITIVE way to tell if it has found it , and to test for future errors (like, if it emulates 3 of 4 instructions, will the FPU emulator get the last one or will my system halt ...) The guy at ISC had no idea at all, and Intel says that is a valid, supportd hardware combination that they had pushed before the 387's were ready to get motherboards designed. Can someone send me a simple benchmark that I can use to test it ? If it will help X11 I'll be VERY happy. Any replies much appreciated, I can summarize if there is interest. ========[ Xanadu Enterprises Inc. Amiga & Unix Software Development]======= = The belief that by forcing one to be "Politically Correct" in speech = = you can change what one thinks or feels, and so *CONTROL* the thoughts = = and bend them to the patterns *YOU* wish is one that George Orwell = = would have enjoyed seeing sweep the nation as it has, as predicted. = =========== Ken Jamieson: uunet!tronsbox.xei.com!tron1 =================== = NONE of the opinions represented here are endorsed by either = = Xanadu Enterprises or its clients, AT&T Bell Labs or others. = === The Romantic Encounters BBS 201-759-8450(PEP) / 201-759-8568(2400) ====
sef@kithrup.COM (Sean Eric Fagan) (12/20/90)
In article <276e44eb-1d5comp.unix.sysv386@tronsbox.xei.com> tron1@tronsbox.xei.com (HIM) writes: >Does anyone know if the ISC kernel will find and use it ? Yes, it will. There is a sysi86 call to find out the FPU kind: 1 is for an emulator, 2 is for a '287, and 3 is for a '387, I believe. This is in the stock 3.2 release from AT&T, so there's no reason to believe ISC would have lost it. >and to test for future errors >(like, if it emulates 3 of 4 instructions, will the FPU emulator get the >last one or will my system halt ...) Your system won't panic (or shouldn't); if you try to execute a '387-only instruction, you should get a SIGABRT or something similar. >Can someone send me a simple benchmark that I can use to test it ? If it >will help X11 I'll be VERY happy. Check out your boot message; it should tell you what kind of FPU is available, if any. -- Sean Eric Fagan | "I made the universe, but please don't blame me for it; sef@kithrup.COM | I had a bellyache at the time." -----------------+ -- The Turtle (Stephen King, _It_) Any opinions expressed are my own, and generally unpopular with others.