From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Message-ID: <3A8C5DB5.2CE9D3C@mvista.com> Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 17:52:37 -0500 From: Dan Malek MIME-Version: 1.0 To: frowand@mvista.com Cc: linuxppc-dev@lists.linuxppc.org Subject: Re: program exception emulates mfspr PVR References: <20010215160658.P26702@altus.drgw.net> <3A8C5A95.9A94F914@mvista.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: owner-linuxppc-dev@lists.linuxppc.org List-Id: Frank Rowand wrote: > And why add this extra cruft? Perhaps you should ask the people that requested it, probably one or two doors down from your office.......... It was added so programs (actually libraries) executing prior to any of the /proc stuff set up (like init) could detect the processor type and install (or avoid) a variety of instructions unique to that processor. Cache line information, availability of floating point, Altivec, unique silicon errata workarounds, etc. could be incorporated into the library, reducing the requirement to have uniquely compiled libraries for all of the processor variants. This has been discussed for ages on a variety of mailing lists, and emulating the 'mfspr PVR', which is hardly cruft compared to some of the other stuff that exists, was the easiest and least intrusive method. -- Dan ** Sent via the linuxppc-dev mail list. See http://lists.linuxppc.org/