Subject: Install an 881 in a FPU-less 3/50.
To: None <n6mod@rahul.net>
From: Gordon W. Ross <gwr@mc.com>
List: port-sun3
Date: 02/22/1995 11:55:27
> Date: Tue, 21 Feb 1995 23:35:36 -0800
> From: n6mod@rahul.net (Aleksandr Milewski)
> 
> >That's all.  Just put the chip in (if you want it).
> >However, you can run NetBSD just fine without the FPU.
> >All you have to do is build a kernel without FPCOPROC
> >defined, or patch the variable fpu_type to zero during
> >kernel startup.  (Someday, an FPU probe will do that.)
> 
> Somehow, the notion got planted in my brain that the FPU was required.
> (Is it required for the Mac Port?)

You still need it if your user-level programs use FPU instructions.
If you don't have an FPU, programs with FPU instructions will die
with SIGILL.  You would need to rebuild the world for soft-float.

Gordon