>Number:         36163
>Category:       port-i386
>Synopsis:       I386_CPU is obsolete and should be removed
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       non-critical
>Priority:       low
>Responsible:    port-i386-maintainer
>State:          open
>Class:          change-request
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Tue Apr 17 11:45:00 +0000 2007
>Originator:     Andrew Doran
>Release:        NetBSD 4.99.17
>Organization:
The NetBSD Project
>Environment:
Architecture: i386
>Description:
[Resending - the web form ate my earlier PR]

The I386_CPU option is obsolete and should be removed. In brief:

- It hasn't worked properly for some time. We shouldn't be advertising
  features that we cannot support.

- It adds code complexity and maintenance overhead in a number of areas. If
  nothing else, we should be able to rely on features that x86 CPUs have been
  providing for nearly 20 years like: cmpxchg, global pages, invlpg.

- The 80386 was mostly overlooked by users, who skipped it and got 486 class
  machines. The majority of the machines out there are severely underpowered
  and are better served by a comtemporary operating system like MS-DOS or
  386BSD.
>How-To-Repeat:
Code inspection, common sense.
>Fix:
- Remove the option.
- Update documentation.
- Announce its removal.