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    SubjectRe: Is 386 processor still supported?
    On 016, 01 16, 2009 at 10:00:02AM +0100, Pavel Machek wrote:
    > >
    > > * Maciej W. Rozycki <macro@linux-mips.org> wrote:
    > >
    > > > On Thu, 15 Jan 2009, Alan Cox wrote:
    > > >
    > > > > > UP emulation of CMPXCHG and XADD for userland should be rather trivial,
    > > > > > so why not include it like with LL/SC for MIPS?
    > > > >
    > > > > Why not just ship an additional libc with the right options ?
    > > >
    > > > Does not work for MIPS as glibc has no equivalent code for pre-LL/SC
    > > > CPUs and LL/SC is always used. For the i386 the situation seems worse
    > > > yet as for pre-i486 CPUs a generic C implementation of
    > > > compare-and-exchange is used guaranteeing silent thread unsafety. :(
    > > >
    > > > IMO, a kernel emulation of CMPXCHG and XADD (both are used by
    > > > sysdeps/i386/i486/bits/atomic.h in glibc) with an optional LOCK prefix,
    > > > guaranteeing UP atomicity would be a cheap way to provide long-term i386
    > > > userland support with little burden for both Linux and respective user
    > > > software maintainers. Certainly it adds some bloat to the kernel, but I
    > > > think it is not an option that should be outright dismissed without
    > > > consideration.
    > >
    > > patches are welcome ...
    >
    > Hehe, I guess the only long-term solution is to get shiny old 386 as a
    > part of Ingo's test farm ;-).

    It's not so difficult BTW, i386EX CPUs are still used in embedded world.
    Example: http://www.embeddedarm.com/products/board-detail.php?product=TS-3300
    It even has ethernet and price is reasonable (for embedded board of course) :)

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