English Amiga Board - View Single Post - The vampire incompatiblity discussion thread

grelbfarlk · 26 May 2017, 16:08

+2 Kev +.5 Chucky +1.6667 Don Adan
It was at least a year and a half ago that Gunnar said that the FPU was "Done" and it was just disabled because it had a few bugs. But then again AGA was "Done two years ago" as well.

I bought my V500 on the basis that the FPU was going to be working soon. And it was "just waiting on people to write testcases for him" as apparently it was too much effort to download an FPU enabled application and troubleshoot it. Or maybe the FPU code might infect the rest of the core with those confusing and too difficult instructions.

At any rate as others have said the 68EC080 and RTG do work for what they are.

Some in the IRC channel suggested various theories why the FPU isn't there yet, in no particular order here they are:
- There is no room left in the FPGA for a fully compatible FPU in hardware
- It was working enough but wasn't fast enough to satisfy someone's ego
- A fully working FPU while doing FPU work will cause some terrible or just some slight speed penalty to the Integer core or the RTG
- It's too hard
- It's being withheld to only be enabled on the standalone board(forced obsolescence)
- Working on the FPU gives someone dreams of waking up in math class naked

I have no idea if any of these theories have any basis in reality and I don't really care as long as the FPU finally comes around.

26 May 2017, 16:08	#62
grelbfarlk Registered User Join Date: Dec 2015 Location: USA Posts: 2,910	+2 Kev +.5 Chucky +1.6667 Don Adan It was at least a year and a half ago that Gunnar said that the FPU was "Done" and it was just disabled because it had a few bugs. But then again AGA was "Done two years ago" as well. I bought my V500 on the basis that the FPU was going to be working soon. And it was "just waiting on people to write testcases for him" as apparently it was too much effort to download an FPU enabled application and troubleshoot it. Or maybe the FPU code might infect the rest of the core with those confusing and too difficult instructions. At any rate as others have said the 68EC080 and RTG do work for what they are. Some in the IRC channel suggested various theories why the FPU isn't there yet, in no particular order here they are: - There is no room left in the FPGA for a fully compatible FPU in hardware - It was working enough but wasn't fast enough to satisfy someone's ego - A fully working FPU while doing FPU work will cause some terrible or just some slight speed penalty to the Integer core or the RTG - It's too hard - It's being withheld to only be enabled on the standalone board(forced obsolescence) - Working on the FPU gives someone dreams of waking up in math class naked I have no idea if any of these theories have any basis in reality and I don't really care as long as the FPU finally comes around.