The idea that an FPU is totally useless is untrue. glibc will use the large FPU registers for optimized memory copies if they are not being used for real floating point operations.
I work on an embedded PowerPC product that has no FPU so we had to build a special glibc that does not use the FPU registers.
I don't know if Apple is using a glibc with these optimizations. If they are then their customers could appreciate some use of the dual FPU cores in everyday integer types of computing.
Peter Coad loves to talk objects with anyone and is excellent at explaining himself. He had a 1999 JavaOne talk dedicated to this "UML Modeling in Color" idea and it was very informative and approachable.
Slashdot should conduct an "Ask Peter Coad anything" interview and give him the chance to clarify stuff in his book.
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The idea that an FPU is totally useless is untrue. glibc will use the large FPU registers for optimized memory copies if they are not being used for real floating point operations.
I work on an embedded PowerPC product that has no FPU so we had to build a special glibc that does not use the FPU registers.
I don't know if Apple is using a glibc with these optimizations. If they are then their customers could appreciate some use of the dual FPU cores in everyday integer types of computing.
Peter Coad loves to talk objects with anyone and is excellent at explaining himself. He had a 1999 JavaOne talk dedicated to this "UML Modeling in Color" idea and it was very informative and approachable.
Slashdot should conduct an "Ask Peter Coad anything" interview and give him the chance to clarify stuff in his book.