Re: [AD] CPU info changes

[Bob <ohannessian@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Henrik Stokseth wrote:

> On Tuesday 23 October 2001 14:44, Laurence Withers wrote:
>
>
> > > In reply to Bob <ohannessian@xxxxxxxxxx>:
> > > I was thinking we get rid of it (less symbols to export).
> > If nobody strongly disagrees, this is probably a good thing. I wouldn't
> > mind, but then I don't use any of these variables.
> >
> >
> > > We can document how to
> > > "get it back" from the cpu_id string. I also don't think it will break too
> > > many programs.
> > Fair enough (at least by me).
>
> having a string to list processor information is ok. but getting rid of 
> cpu_type, cpu_vedor etc. is something that should be avoided. besides 
> breaking some programs


I don't think it'll break that many programs. We can always code macros to 
get the info if you're so worried about it :)

> it also makes it harder and slower to get this info. 
> parsing a string to fetch this info is just a bad idea IMO.


I don't know about you, but I tend not to fetch CPU info a few million times 
per second :-P
Seriously though, I wanted to use the string idea because it's indefinately 
extensible. We can add as many paramters as we want without breaking old 
programs (well new programs, from our perspective :)


> your original proposal was adding a cpu-info string, and combining various 
> information in an int, right?


Not quite. Only the cpu_mmx, cpu_sse, cpu_3dnow and cpu_fpu will be combined 
together. This makes it a whole lot easier to test for combined capabilities.


> what about putting all info into a cpu struct like this?
>
> struct {
>   char *desc; /* string with cpu info */
>   int vendor_id;
>   int family, model;
>   int mmx, sse, 3dnow, cpu_id, fpu;
> } cpu;
>
> this gets rid of some exports.
> and perhaps you should also provide some macros for backwards compatibility?



This could work also, but I think a string is much more flexible.



--
- Robert J Ohannessian
"Microsoft code is probably O(n^20)" (my CS prof)
http://pages.infinit.net/voidstar/