From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Jun 12 10:57:21 1996 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id KAA19903 for questions-outgoing; Wed, 12 Jun 1996 10:57:21 -0700 (PDT) Received: from soda.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU (soda.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU [128.32.43.52]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id KAA19898 for ; Wed, 12 Jun 1996 10:57:19 -0700 (PDT) Received: from soda.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU (smurf@localhost) by soda.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU (8.6.12/8.6.12) with ESMTP id KAA26299; Wed, 12 Jun 1996 10:57:19 -0700 Message-Id: <199606121757.KAA26299@soda.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU> To: David Kelly cc: Matthew Stein , Scott MacFiggen , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: NExGen chip Nx586-100 In-reply-to: Your message of "Tue, 11 Jun 1996 21:31:38 CDT." Date: Wed, 12 Jun 1996 10:57:02 -0700 From: Scott MacFiggen Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk >At 4:44 PM -0500 6/11/96, Matthew Stein wrote: >>On Tue, 11 Jun 1996, Scott MacFiggen wrote: >> >>> I just got a hold of a Nexgen chip + PCI motherboard. >>> ... >>> the system is running with a 386. >> >>That's correct. The NexGen nx586 IS a 386 compatible chip, with an FPU, >>and performance comparible to a Pentium. We run a couple of them that >>regularly outpace similar pentiums. If you compile your kernel for a 386, >>you'll have no problems. > >>From the part number I don't think Scott got an Nx586 with FPU. Make sure >you build your kernel with FPU emulator included. > >Box-stock FreeBSD-2.1R runs perfectly on my non-FPU PCI-90 NexGen, "make >world" in under 5-1/2 hours. Scott may have other problems. I did get the FPU version so that is not a problem. The problem is that I had a 486-50 so my kernel is currently configured for a 486 hence it won't boot on a 386 it seems. Moslty I was asking if FreeBSD had a patch to recognize the chip as a Nexgen chip instead of a 386. But since the NExgen chip doesn't support Pentuim microcode, it doesn't seem to matter. Although I d know Linux has a patch to let it take advantage of nexgens cache on steriods, does FreeBSD have something similar? I guess it is time to download boot floppies so I can fix my kernel... -Scott