Re: [git pull] x86 fixes

From: Mark Lord
Date: Tue Sep 09 2008 - 13:49:01 EST


Mark Lord wrote:
Andi Kleen wrote:
Krzysztof Halasa <khc@xxxxxxxxx> writes:

Linus Torvalds <torvalds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

- "modern 32-bit": PPro and better. Can take CMOV, MMX and TSC for granted.
VIA C3 (Samuel 2/Ezra, 600 - 1000 MHz?, common on VIA EPIA-*: home
theatres etc) can't CMOV.

AFAIK they fixed that in newer BIOS with a microcode update. It's slow, but it works.
..

Our firewall here uses a Via C3-600 CPU, and CMOV has never worked on it.
But based upon your posting, I have today upgraded the BIOS to the
latest (2004) version.

Now.. how can I check whether CMOV works or not? It's not listed in /proc/cpuinfo.
..

H. Peter Anvin wrote:

Compile just about any C program with -march=i686.
..

Okay, done. And the binary does indeed have a ton of CMOV instructions.
When running it, this appears immediately:

Illegal instruction

So much for the "BIOS upgrade fixes CMOV microcode" theory.

Cheers
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/