Re: Is 386 processor still supported?

From: Maciej W. Rozycki
Date: Thu Jan 15 2009 - 09:44:37 EST


On Thu, 15 Jan 2009, Alan Cox wrote:

> > 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.
>
> Nobody normally builds for 386 (and you need the big FPU emulator etc too
> and pay a big penalty for the lack of working WP bits) so it wouldn't be
> a big penalty if you can actually find an i386 user any more ;)

You can actually escape the FPU emulator if you have a proper computer
(an i386/80287 combo, anyone? ;) -- we've got it right actually :) ), but
the rest and overall I agree with you. And I think i386-class cores can
be still seen in some embedded applications, so there may be non-epsilon
interest yet.

Maciej
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