i686 optimization

Patrick McFarland diablod3 at gmail.com
Sat Jun 10 09:38:40 BST 2006


On Saturday 10 June 2006 04:14, Gianmarco Leone wrote:
> Hi,
>
> considering that Dapper is LTS, couldn't Edgy be 686-optimized? After
> all with xgl and beagle will be hardly used by older computers, and they
> will have the Dapper support anyway.

Ultimately, no. For one, too many users still use actual 586 class hardware, 
such as the crappy Pentium I machines setup for dumb terminals and 
firewall/lan apache duty. 

There are also the K6, K6-2, and K6-3 processors which will not run 686 
binaries. These machines make great desktops, and are quite prolific.

And last but not least, any of Via's C3/C4 line of processors. While they are 
modern, and still in production, and decently fast for a ULW processor, they 
do not meet the requirements of 686 as they are missing two or three (rarely 
used, but required) instructions.

-- 
Patrick McFarland || www.AdTerrasPerAspera.com || www.MakePatrickRich.com
"Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids,
we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and
listening to repetitive electronic music." -- Kristian Wilson, Nintendo,
Inc, 1989




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