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From: rivers@ponds.uucp (Thomas David Rivers)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd
Subject: Re: [386bsd] installing fpu (ULSI) results in floating exceptions
Message-ID: <1992Nov30.013413.1119@ponds.uucp>
Date: 30 Nov 92 01:34:13 GMT
References: <1992Nov25.233843.29513@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> <6440@tuegate.tue.nl>
Lines: 34
I have had discussions with ULSI about the situation:
1) The ULSI chip does *not* provide 80287 instructions (as the Intel
and Cyrix chips do)
2) Apparently, 386bsd *does* support such instructions, and GCC can
generate them.
3) When the ULSI chip is presented with such an instruction, it can
have "random" behaviour; the least benign of which is to lock
the machine up.
4) ULSI will not (in the near future) be offering a part which does
support 287 instructions.
5) ULSI did promise to refund my money, but that was in the summer, and
here it is the end of November, and I haven't seen anything.
I did send a complete write up of the problem to ULSI, along with
voluminous information as to how to acquire 386bsd. They were very
helpful, etc... and promptly acknowledged the problem, etc... I gave
them a lot of detail as to how to acquire a version of 386bsd to test
with, etc....
At this point, the answer is - If you have a ULSI chip, try and
get your vendor to replace it for something else (Cyrix or Intel).
If you can't get a replacement; call ULSI and speak to Roland, he may
be able to work something out. [If you do call, please ask where
my refund money is; it may help me see some of it.]
- Dave Rivers -
(rivers@ponds.uucp (home) (Raleigh, N.C.))
(sastdr@unx.sas.com (work))