Re: pbulk bootstrap: `awk` running into FP overflow during bison build (Grater picture: How to bootstrap pkgsrc / pbulk?)

["Maciej W. Rozycki" <macro%orcam.me.uk@localhost>]

On Mon, 7 Aug 2023, Paul Koning wrote:

> >> The 780 had H-float in hardware.  Actually, it had all instructions 
> >> in hardware (microcode).
> > 
> > The 780 had H-float as an option, I think. The 730 might always have 
> > had it, but otherwise the default answer for me for any of these 
> > questions is always the 86x0. It had everything in hardware (well, ok, 
> > microcode), except things like vector instructions, which hadn't been 
> > defined when the machine was sold. Fairly sure it was the machine with 
> > the most of all VAX stuff done in hardware.
> 
> DEC Std 032, the VAX standard, says (appendix B) that the 730 has G and 
> H standard, while the 750 and 780 have an option to provide G and H 
> float.  I assume that option was a later addition since G/H float don't 
> appear in the original VAX handbooks.

 The G_floating format was retrofitted to the architecture in response to 
Intel's 8087, cf. 
<http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~wkahan/ieee754status/754story.html>.

  Maciej