plan9 on a pc w/no fpu

plan9 on a pc w/no fpu

[Stan]

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

plan9 on a pc w/no fpu

[jmk]

>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.

	...

plan9 on a pc w/no fpu

[Reed]

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>