Re: 80386 support

["Aaron J. Grier" <agrier%poofygoof.com@localhost>]

On Tue, Aug 28, 2012 at 09:30:39AM +0300, Jukka Ruohonen wrote:
> It is just that i386 from the 1990s ("the infamous PC") is not
> interesting from the perspective of ISA or design or historical
> value...  Would you agree?

I disagree.  as the first 32-bit x86 implementation, I think the
original 80386 was a watershed part.  tracing out how the architecture
(both CPU and system) morphed through later designs to end up with the
current implementations is incredibly interesting to me.  I'd like to
think that solutions to past problems tend to be useful for the future,
and that those who forget the past are bound to reimplement it poorly.

I also have this sneaking suspicion that while the beige-box PCs seem to
be almost universally disdained, that there's not too many of them still
around in actual working condition.  (I don't know if my local recycling
center keeps any stats on this stuff...  that would be quite interesting
data over a long term.)

Intel does feed my family, but I don't work in the CPU design part of
the company, and in fact, the non-Intel CPUs outnumber the Intel CPUs in
my own basement datacenter.

-- 
  Aaron J. Grier | "Not your ordinary poofy goof." | 
agrier%poofygoof.com@localhost