Re: New Math Coprocessor - who has a need for it???

[glyn@cs.UAlberta.CA (Reade Glyn Devin)]

In article <1993Jul14.200342.18140@ifi.unizh.ch>, gudat henrik writes...

[Mini-FAQ question:]

> > So would this card speed up _ALL_ programs written
> > with Orca/C for example?
>  
> Yes, if they have been compiled with the "#pragma float..." command.
> This call, however, requires you to specify the slot number of the
> FPE/NC, and according to the ORCA manual, "the FPE/NC must be installed
> in the indicated slot, or the program will crash or give incorrect
> answers." So much for progress.

No!  As I mentioned with another post, with Orca/C 2.0 you can specify
at run time which slot has the FPE.  The only time it crashes is if
you use the FPE library and you don't have the card.  I find the easiest
way to do this for shell programs is by defining an environment variable
FPESLOT as the slot number and then using this to tell the library which
slot to use.

> This is also true for programs in ASSEMBLY language. When calling SANE,
> the pointers to Apple's routines are "bend" to a short piece of code
> that has some fun with the NC.
> If they recognize the NC or FPE automatically, they are mostly that
> clever that they do not assume a particular slot. (I forgot the name of
> the apps - ask Frank :-)

Yep, when programming in assy, you can produce programs that will use
the COP card if it is there and use SANE otherwise.  In fact, Henrik
made some nice mods to Symbolix along these lines -- thanks Henrik! --
although I understand the method was a bit weird ;)

PS: I'm using COP as a generic term for all coprocessor cards including
both the FPE and FPU (?).

--
        G. Devin Reade          glyn@cs.ualberta.ca