Return to BSD News archive
Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.mel.connect.com.au!news.syd.connect.com.au!phaedrus.kralizec.net.au!news.mel.aone.net.au!grumpy.fl.net.au!news.webspan.net!news-out.internetmci.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!demos!news-out.communique.net!mr.net!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!news.primenet.com!news.primenet.com!not-for-mail From: "Russell L. Carter" <rcarter@consys.com> Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Cyrix P166+ CPU patch - is it available? Date: 20 Jan 1997 11:06:00 -0700 Organization: Conceptual Systems & Software Lines: 38 Message-ID: <32E3B407.167EB0E7@consys.com> References: <Pine.SUN.3.93-heb-2.07.970116185536.7861A-100000@actcom.co.il> <5bmd7a$ni9@darkstar.ucsc.edu> <E4BCLq.4BI@cogsci.ed.ac.uk> X-Posted-By: @207.218.17.187 (eandert) X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01Gold (X11; U; FreeBSD 2.1-STABLE i386) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:34310 Richard Tobin wrote: > > In article <5bmd7a$ni9@darkstar.ucsc.edu> tgs@cats.ucsc.edu (Thomas Gunnar Sparks) writes: > >From what I understand, Cyrix has crappy math coprocessing > >Why would anyone buy one? other than its cheap I guess.. > > To avoid the Intel monopoly? > > -- Richard > -- > "Nothing can stop me now... except microscopic germs" The P166+ is a curious animal. I needed a home FreeBSD box, cheap, so I've just ordered up a cpu/mb combo from Rod. Otherwise I would have a bought a P5-133. From the scuttlebut on the net it appears that the P166+ is roughly equivalent to a P5-166, except for floating point, where it is about equal to a P5-133. And it is about $25-$30 cheaper than a P5-133. As soon as I get it I will put it through my usual battery of benchmarks on FBSD, and maybe summarize here. I personally don't think floating point performance is so critical (and I should know 8-) There is an impressive amount of noise surrounding cpus these days, what with the MMX and Micro$oft sabotoging the cyrix chips on NT4, etc. I've found http://sysdoc.pair.com/cpu.html to be a useful place to start with cpus and mbs, but I usually end up at c't. http://www.ix.de/ct/ -- - Russell Carter Voice:(520) 636-2600 FAX:(520) 636-2888 rcarter@consys.com Conceptual Systems & Software, P.O. Box 1129 Chino Valley AZ 86323 "Before sitting down, always look for ferrets."