xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/man4.i386/npx.4 (revision 952d112864d8008aa87278a30a539d888a8493cd)
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2.\" Copyright (c) 1993 Christopher G. Demetriou
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30.\"	from: npx.4,v 1.1 1993/08/06 10:58:03 cgd Exp
31.\"	$Id$
32.\"
33.Dd August 28, 1993
34.Dt NPX 4 i386
35.Os FreeBSD
36.Sh NAME
37.Nm npx
38.Nd Numeric Processing Extension coprocessor and emulator
39.Sh SYNOPSIS
40.Cd "options MATH_EMULATE"
41.\" XXX this is awful hackery to get it to work right... -- cgd
42.Cd "device npx0 at isa? port" \&"IO_NPX0\&" tty irq 13 vector npxintr
43.Sh DESCRIPTION
44The
45.Nm npx
46driver enables the use of the system's Numeric Processing Extension
47coprocessor,
48if one is present.  Numeric processing extensions are present in
49systems with
50.Sy 486DX
51CPUs and in systems with
52.Sy 387
53or
54.Sy 487SX
55coprocessors.  The
56.Nm npx
57driver is required for proper system functioning regardless
58of whether or not a NPX is present.
59.Pp
60If there is no NPX present in the system, the "MATH_EMULATE"
61option must be defined in the kernel configuration file.
62It will provide support for the instructions normally executed
63by the NPX.  If there is no NPX in the system and the kernel
64is not built with math emulation, the system will not boot.
65.Sh CAVEATS
66The emulator is much slower than the NPX coprocessor.
67This will result in poor floating-point math performance
68if the emulator must be used.
69.Sh BUGS
70There are lots of them, especially on cheap motherboards.  In particular,
71some motherboards do not have the interrupt lines from the NPX to
72the CPU wired properly.  If this is the case, the emulator must be used
73if consistent system operation is desired.
74.Pp
75Emulation of the transcendental functions instructions is incorrect.
76Emulation of other instructions is suspect.
77