Messages in this thread | | | Date | Wed, 17 Jun 1998 19:15:50 +1000 (EST) | From | Nathan Hand <> | Subject | Re: MMX emulator ? |
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On Tue, 16 Jun 1998, Jeffrey Hundstad wrote:
> On 16 Jun, linker@nightshade.ml.org wrote: > > Wouldn't it be better for all if apps: > > > > i = detect_MMMX(); > > if !i then usenormalstuff=1; > > else usemmx=1; > > > > then had code for both cases??? > > no....
Definitely no.
> If you can assume the MMX functions are there then EACH application > doesn't have to emulate all of the MMX stuff itself if it doesn't have > the REAL hardware. > > This should be treated EXACTLY like the Floating Point hardware... at > least in my opinion.
100% agreement.
It's just like OpenGL: you can assume it's all there, and what can be accelerated, will be accelerated.
But I think you can do your MMX emulation in userspace, with a SIGILL handler, and maybe some libc mods.
BTW: why isn't the FPU emulation in userspace? Surely it's not for performance reasons!
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