I seem to recall some debate a while back about compliance to the
	MIPS ABI causing a noticeable performance drop, in particular
	comparing static linked NetBSD and Ultrix binaries.

	The reason for using the MIPS ABI even on static binaries is
	otherwise a .c file would need to be compiled with different
	flags depending on whether it is going to be linked static or
	dynamic.

	A couple of questions... :)

	a) Would it be possible to devise a different ABI (maybe based on
	   the older static linking approach) that does not suffer from 
	   the performance hit? I understand the advantage of standards
	   compliance in genera , but maybe the cost outweighs the
	   benefit in this case?

	b) Would it be possible to modify the linker to perform the
	   appropriate magic so we could use the faster call rules for
	   static binaries?

	Just curious :)


		David/absolute