Subject: Re: Floating point hardware vs. software
To: None <jfw@jfwhome.funhouse.com, port-i386@NetBSD.ORG>
From: Charles M. Hannum <mycroft@NetBSD.ORG>
List: port-i386
Date: 02/03/1996 23:03:28
BTW, at one point someone suggested writing a `portable' emulator --
basically a C-coded IEEE floating point emulator, similar to the SPARC
(and now 68k) versions.  This wouldn't entirely solve the problem, as some
of the instructions (at least on the Intel chips) don't directly
correspond to IEEE 854 primitives, and it would be slightly slower, but it
would make supporting emulation on many architectures much easier.

Anyone up to the task?