* plan9 on a pc w/no fpu
@ 1995-09-25 21:07 Reed
0 siblings, 0 replies; 3+ messages in thread
From: Reed @ 1995-09-25 21:07 UTC (permalink / raw)
Hi,
After a bit of trouble and a great deal of assistance
from Jim at bell labs (thanks!) I've finally got plan9
installed on my laptop. (compaq aero)
The problem now is that my machine has no fpu. I understand
plan9 "requires" one but can anyone tell me just how much
trouble I am likely to have without it.
I haven't done much of anything yet and the only problem
I've seen thus far is a funky looking clock.
My feeling is that I should really just give up on trying
to get this particular machine to enjoy running plan9.
thanks,
Reed Wade
---------
University of Tennessee, Knoxville Dept of Computer Science
Netlib Development Group 'Dust--is round off error.' says geek
wade@cs.utk.edu -- <URL:http://www.netlib.org/utk/people/ReedWade.html>
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread
* plan9 on a pc w/no fpu
@ 1995-09-25 23:08 jmk
0 siblings, 0 replies; 3+ messages in thread
From: jmk @ 1995-09-25 23:08 UTC (permalink / raw)
>From the archive
From: forsyth@plan9.cs.york.ac.uk
To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
Date: Sat, 2 Sep 1995 17:56:51 -0400
Subject: re: plan9 on laptop
>>It is said about compiler that floating point requires hardware fpu. Does
>>it mean that the system won't work with 486sx/slc, that is a frequent
>>chip to install in laptops?
there is no support in the 386/486 kernel for emulation of floating point.
the 486sx seems to return not-a-number (NaN) for floating-point operations,
if the processor is not set to trap on floating point operations (and
plan 9 does not set that bit).
although the bulk of the system will function quite happily without
a floating-point unit, there are important exceptions. sometimes these
are surprising. it has been some time since i tried a 486sx on the
cpu/terminal kernel, but i believe that either 8c or 8l will fail.
one of the more surprising programs to fail is troff, which now
uses floating-point (at least, it did in the old release, and i don't
think that's changed). less surprising failures include awk.
the window system and editors weren't a problem.
...
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread
* plan9 on a pc w/no fpu
@ 1995-09-25 22:50 Stan
0 siblings, 0 replies; 3+ messages in thread
From: Stan @ 1995-09-25 22:50 UTC (permalink / raw)
In message <199509252108.RAA21689@cuspidor>, Reed Wade writes:
>
>Hi,
>
>After a bit of trouble and a great deal of assistance
>from Jim at bell labs (thanks!) I've finally got plan9
>installed on my laptop. (compaq aero)
>
>The problem now is that my machine has no fpu. I understand
>plan9 "requires" one but can anyone tell me just how much
>trouble I am likely to have without it.
>
>I haven't done much of anything yet and the only problem
>I've seen thus far is a funky looking clock.
>
>My feeling is that I should really just give up on trying
>to get this particular machine to enjoy running plan9.
>
>thanks,
>
>Reed Wade
>---------
>University of Tennessee, Knoxville Dept of Computer Science
>Netlib Development Group 'Dust--is round off error.' says geek
>wade@cs.utk.edu -- <URL:http://www.netlib.org/utk/people/ReedWade.html>
I saw a synopsis of the implications of fpu-less operation in a
posting on the plan9 list archive. I was looking for a list of
supported laptop hardware (which I've yet to find).
good luck
Stan
--
Stan Norton -- norton@northsea.com
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 3+ messages in thread
end of thread, other threads:[~1995-09-25 23:08 UTC | newest]
Thread overview: 3+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed)
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
1995-09-25 21:07 plan9 on a pc w/no fpu Reed
1995-09-25 22:50 Stan
1995-09-25 23:08 jmk
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for NNTP newsgroup(s).