Re: What processor features does Guix support on i686?

[Mark H Weaver <mhw@netris.org>]

Hi Leo,

Thanks for asking about this, and for ably taking care of our
Linux-libre packages.  I'm grateful for your work on this.

Leo Famulari <leo@famulari.name> writes:

> I noticed that Linux 5.12 has a new config option regarding "Processor
> family". The default choice, Pentium-Pro (M686), is highlighted in this
> quote:
>
> ------
> Processor family
>   1. 486SX (M486SX) (NEW)
>   2. 486DX (M486) (NEW)
>   3. 586/K5/5x86/6x86/6x86MX (M586) (NEW)
>   4. Pentium-Classic (M586TSC) (NEW)
>   5. Pentium-MMX (M586MMX) (NEW)
>> 6. Pentium-Pro (M686) (NEW)
>   7. Pentium-II/Celeron(pre-Coppermine) (MPENTIUMII) (NEW)
>   8. Pentium-III/Celeron(Coppermine)/Pentium-III Xeon (MPENTIUMIII) (NEW)
>   9. Pentium M (MPENTIUMM) (NEW)
>   10. Pentium-4/Celeron(P4-based)/Pentium-4 M/older Xeon (MPENTIUM4) (NEW)
>   11. K6/K6-II/K6-III (MK6) (NEW)
>   12. Athlon/Duron/K7 (MK7) (NEW)
>   13. Opteron/Athlon64/Hammer/K8 (MK8)
>   14. Crusoe (MCRUSOE) (NEW)
>   15. Efficeon (MEFFICEON) (NEW)
>   16. Winchip-C6 (MWINCHIPC6) (NEW)
>   17. Winchip-2/Winchip-2A/Winchip-3 (MWINCHIP3D) (NEW)
>   18. AMD Elan (MELAN) (NEW)
>   19. GeodeGX1 (MGEODEGX1) (NEW)
>   20. Geode GX/LX (MGEODE_LX) (NEW)
>   21. CyrixIII/VIA-C3 (MCYRIXIII) (NEW)
>   22. VIA C3-2 (Nehemiah) (MVIAC3_2) (NEW)
>   23. VIA C7 (MVIAC7) (NEW)
>   24. Core 2/newer Xeon (MCORE2)
>   25. Intel Atom (MATOM)
> ------
>
> info: https://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/M686.html
>
> I know that, in the past, we have been careful to not require certain
> processor features on i686, such as SSE [0].
>
> I would appreciate some guidance, both about this kernel configuration
> option, and what we have historically considered to be the "minimum
> requirements" for i686 hardware. I will put that information the manual
> so that it doesn't get lost.
[...]
> [0] https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2016-07/msg01534.html

It's been a long while since I looked at this, and of course we may wish
to revisit the issue, but for now, I think that the right choice above
is the default one, namely: "6. Pentium-Pro (M686) (NEW)"

   Thanks again,
       Mark

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