RFC: Optimizing for 386

[Dave Jones]

On Wed, Jan 19, 2005 at 10:26:51AM -0600, Joseph D. Wagner wrote:
 > > They're optimized for pentium4, but use the i386 instruction set.
 > There are instructions which have come out since the 386, like MMX, that
 > could improve the performance of programs.  In this case, graphics programs.

Many graphics programs test for features such as mmx/3dnow/sse at runtime
and run alternative hand-written assembly routines when present.
This way the program runs on any x86 platform regardless of featureset
without needing to be compiled for a specific variant.

 > Why should my graphics programs suffer because some fool is running a 20
 > year old computer?
 
You forgot to attach the benchmarks showing the improvements.

For a large percentage of the packages shipped in Fedora, RPMs 'optimised'
for >386 just won't be noticable.

		Dave