Thorsten Froehlich <tho### [at] trfde> wrote:
> Warp wrote:
> > Thorsten Froehlich <tho### [at] trfde> wrote:
> >> Yes, but what use are instructions you won't be able to use in the future 
> >> and your are already recommended not to use now?
> > 
> >   As long as the hardware supports x87, I see absolutely no rational reason
> > why an OS would drop support for 99% of programs just because it doesn't
> > want the FPU to be used.

> Tell that Microsoft, Apple and the Linux community.

  Windows, MacOS X and Linux all fully support programs which use the FPU.
If they wouldn't, at least 99% of programs would stop working.

  I still see no rational reason to deliberately and on purpose break
99% of programs. What would be the point? Task switching takes a negligible
amount of time, so skipping storing and loading the FPU registers would be
a rather useless micro-optimization.

  What other benefit could there be, from the point of view of an OS?

  (Sure, they might say "please use SSE rather than the FPU from now on",
but that's a completely different thing from actually going and actively
making most programs out there stop working, for no good reason. The
hardware is there, so why not use it? It doesn't make any sense.)

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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