SUN-3 floating point info wanted...

From: Dave McGuire <mcguire_at_neurotica.com>
Date: Thu Feb 14 20:10:39 2002

On February 14, Robert Schaefer wrote:
> Hi! I'm looking for info on the SUN-3 floating point accelerators like the
> FPA, and FPA+. Programming info, header files, maybe even the libraries if
> they're avaliable.

  Under SunOS4, and perhaps previous versions, there are FPA libraries
in /usr/lib. There are three separate math libraries if memory
serves...one for soft floating point, one for 6888[12] fp, and one for
use with the FPA. I don't remember what they're called, but if you
look at the files in /usr/lib it should be obvious.

  Since those libraries are part of the standard SunOS distribution,
studying the SunOS source code should allow one to glean all the
programming info.

  FPAs are neat. If I recall correctly they use Weitek WTL1164 and
WTL1165 chips. Very nice. :-)

> Also, before I pop in to motorols.com, does anyone have a quick little
> snippet of code to excersize a 68882? I just upgraded my SUN-3/280 to a
> '882, and I want to verify that everything's working right before I solder
> in some sockets and start playing with the clock.

  Also under SunOS4, there's a program called "mc68881version" or
something very similar. That'll tell you what rev your 68881/68882
is, and I seem to remember it saying something about performance also,
but it's been a very long time since I last messed with this and I may
not be remembering that part correctly.

      -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire
St. Petersburg, FL         "Less talk.  More synthohol." --Lt. Worf
Received on Thu Feb 14 2002 - 20:10:39 GMT

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Fri Oct 10 2014 - 23:34:46 BST