Subject: Re: DUMMY_NOPS ... what's the story?
To: Matthew B. Wood <devtrix@netcom.com>
From: Jason Thorpe <thorpej@nas.nasa.gov>
List: port-i386
Date: 10/17/1995 12:39:43
On Tue, 17 Oct 1995 09:27:04 -0700 (PDT)
devtrix@netcom.com (Matthew B. Wood) wrote:
> Finally got current running (thanks Eric!) and recently recompiled my
> kernel. I notcied that this line is still in the kernel config file:
>
>
> #options DUMMY_NOPS # speed hack; recommended
>
I have this defined in all of my kernels ... However, I'll be damned if I
can find any place where it makes a difference:
antie (thorpej) /sys/arch/i386/i386 473% grep DUMMY_NOPS *
locore.s:#ifdef DUMMY_NOPS /* this will break some older machines */
...it's used to set up FASTER_NOP and NOP, which:
antie (thorpej) /sys/arch/i386/i386 476% grep NOP *
locore.s:#define ALIGN_TEXT .align 2,0x90 /* 4-byte
boundaries, NOP-filled */
locore.s:/* NB: NOP now preserves registers so NOPs can be inserted
anywhere */locore.s:/* XXX: NOP and FASTER_NOP are misleadingly named */
locore.s:#ifdef DUMMY_NOPS /* this will break some older machines */
locore.s:#define FASTER_NOP
locore.s:#define NOP
locore.s:#define FASTER_NOP pushl %eax ; inb $0x84,%al ; popl
%eax
locore.s:#define NOP pushl %eax ; inb $0x84,%al ; inb
$0x84,%al ; popl %eax
*shrug*
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Jason R. Thorpe thorpej@nas.nasa.gov
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