🚀 go-pugleaf

Hello Patrick Meenan,

First: I do not disagree with you, but think about some things:

> 1 - Microsoft _does_ support it. They will be putting a MMX
>     optimization flag into Visual C++ in the next rev. or two.

You write "does" and "will" -- actually they do not. But they announced to.
So at the moment: unsure. Microsoft could also change its mind. Which is a
little bit unlikely of course. Everyone likes to go with Intel.

> 2 - At least in the digital photo and image processing arenas I can
>     guarantee you that most software will have optimizations for MMX.
>     Most of the vendors that we license libraries from already have the
>     support for the MMX extensions in their libraries, they are just
>     waiting for the chips to begin shipping.

That would mean that they (1) got iP55C beta chip samples, or (2) implemented
the MMX usage just from the manuals. While (1) is true for large software and
code writing companies, (2) is true for those who are small (=not worth in an
Intel eye to get a beta sample chip). While (1) companies can make sure that
they are compatible not only to the manuals, but also to the real silicon, the
(2) companies can't, until they got real silicon by end of the year.

> 3 - If you need to choose something to wait for, it should probably be
>     either the Cyrix chips with MMX or the Pro with MMX.

While the iPentiumPro will probably have MMX shortly after or even at the same
time as the retail iP55C, it should take some more time for the M2 from Cyrix.
Cloning a processor just from manuals at the Intel website will definietly end
up in an incompatible part, because Intel is not as dumb, and goes out to bring
Cyrix the latest MMX details to their office.

The great "MMX licensing" thing is, that you are allowed to use the same names
for the opcodes -- but it doesn't give you more detailed manuals or even micro
code from Intel parts. You still have to reverse engineer the behaviour of MMX
yourself.

Okay, enjoy the day.  :-)

-- 
Christian Ludloff      actual 4P package: 4p_v330.zip (5/1/96)
ludloff@anet-dfw.com   @ http://webusers.anet-dfw.com/~ludloff