FreeBSD Man Pages

npx(4)

SYNOPSIS

     device npx
     hint.npx.0.at="nexus"
     hint.npx.0.port="0x0F0"
     hint.npx.0.flags="0x0"
     hint.npx.0.irq="13"

DESCRIPTION

     The npx driver enables the use of the system's Numeric Processing Exten-
     sion coprocessor.	Numeric processing extensions are present in systems
     with 486DX CPUs and in systems with 387 or 487SX coprocessors.  The npx
     driver is required for proper system functioning.	If there is no NPX in
     the system, the system will not boot.

     The flags for npx0 are:

     0x01    do not use the NPX registers to optimize bcopy.
     0x02    do not use the NPX registers to optimize bzero.
     0x04    do not use the NPX registers to optimize copyin or copyout.

     The NPX registers are normally used to optimize copying and zeroing when
     all of the following conditions are satisfied:

     1.   cpu I586_CPU is an option
     2.   the CPU is an i586 (perhaps not a Pentium)
     3.   the probe for npx0 succeeds
     4.   INT 16 exception handling works.

     Then copying and zeroing using the NPX registers is normally 30-100%
     faster.

     The flags can be used to control cases where it does not work or is
     slower.  Setting them at boot time using userconfig works correctly (the
     optimizations are not used until later in the bootstrap when npx0 is
     attached).

BUGS

     There are lots of them, especially on old cheap motherboards.  In partic-
     ular, some motherboards do not have the interrupt lines from the NPX to
     the CPU wired properly.

FreeBSD 5.4			August 28, 1993 		   FreeBSD 5.4

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