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Date:      Tue, 28 Apr 1998 12:02:24 -0400 (EDT)
From:      CyberPeasant <djv@bedford.net>
To:        hans@artcom.de (Hans Huebner)
Cc:        freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Hardware Concerns.
Message-ID:  <199804281602.MAA07331@pollux.loco.net>
In-Reply-To: <m0yU6Fb-000008C@mail.artcom.de> from Hans Huebner at "Apr 28, 98 11:00:31 am"

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> In article <199804280530.BAA05103@pollux.loco.net> you write:
> 
> >Many say that MMX is a kind of snake oil. Since you are not planning on
> >doing multi-media, and since the gcc compiler, to my incomplete knowledge,
> >does not generate MMX instructions, (perhaps one could code them in
> >assembler), I would say that this doesn't matter. 
> 
> It is true that the MMX instruction set itself is rarely used, and thus
> does not contribute to system performance much.  But the Pentium MMX CPU's
> have, apart from the MMX instructions, an increased L1 cache size, which
> makes them faster (~10%) for non-MMX instructions also.  If you are opting
> for an Intel CPU, there is no choice anyways, as non-MMX-Pentiums are not
> sold anymore.
> 
> -Hans

Ah, yes. The L1 cache increase is a win. I stand altered.

Dave
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