[Info-vax] System Programming versus Application Programming

Scott Dorsey kludge at panix.com
Sat Feb 8 20:46:28 EST 2014


JF Mezei  <jfmezei.spamnot at vaxination.ca> wrote:
>On 14-02-08 13:21, David Froble wrote:
>> Properly chastised.  Thanks Steve and John for furthering my education
>
>To take this is a different direction.
>
>I realise that Poulson is fairly different from Tukwilla.
>
>But when Intel comes out with a new 8086, does it require the same type
>of OS tuning as did the transition from Tukwila to Poulson ?

Pretty much, although the changes have been less dramatic.  But say, when
the MMX instructions became available, there were dramatic changes in the
compilers to support them.  Lots of folks still kept running code designed
for the older architectures, mind you.

>Or is upward compatibility too important in the x86 market and new chips
>will run "off the shelf" opetating systems without any tailoring being
>required ?

Upward compatibility is the whole point of the x86 market, but there 
have still been changes and folks who care about performance (ie. not
Microsoft) have had to rebuild code in order to deal with them.

>We rarely hear about the need to upgrade an OS to run on a now 8086.
>Just wondering if this is because it is done behind the scenes and makes
>no noise, or whether it is because new 8086s do not need the same type
>of tailoring as Tukwila to Poulson did.

Oh, it will run.  Will it run as fast?  
--scott

-- 
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."



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