Gentoo Does An x32 Stage 3 Release Candidate

[FireBurn]

That's a different architecture. x32 is for x86-64 CPUs.


If it's multilib, yes. Just like now with x86-64 distros who also provide 32-bit libraries. Gentoo is not multilib, btw. It can only build x32 packages. (Just like Gentoo AMD64 can't build 32-bit packages.) A true multilib distro might not have those limitations.

There are options for true multilib on Gentoo - it just isn't fully supported yet

[RealNC]

x32? What the heck is that. x16!

While 4GB of memory is enough for most apps, 65kB is not.

:-P

[XorEaxEax]

While 4GB of memory is enough for most apps, 65kB is not.

:-P

Heh, yeah but imagine all the code we could fit into the cpu caches if pointers are only 16-bit!!!

Also if I recall my DOS real-mode days you were able to address up to 1megabyte(!) of ram using segment registers, so no
lousy 64k here

[RealNC]

Heh, yeah but imagine all the code we could fit into the cpu caches if pointers are only 16-bit!!!

Also if I recall my DOS real-mode days you were able to address up to 1megabyte(!) of ram using segment registers, so no
lousy 64k here

DOS programs needed special support for that. We had to deal with "far" and "near" pointers, it was awful. God bless whoever introduced the flat memory model and the DOS extenders.

Edit:
There was also EMS memory (and the EMS memory emulator "emm386.exe" that came packaged with MS-DOS later on). Now those were the days. What a fscking circus that was :-P

[XorEaxEax]

There was also EMS memory (and the EMS memory emulator "emm386.exe" that came packaged with MS-DOS later on). Now those were the days. What a fscking circus that was :-P

I'm glad that by the time I started programming on the PC there were 32-bit dos extenders which gave you a flat memory model, must have been a pain before that. Also coming from the Amiga I immediately fell in love with the VESA linear framebuffer, god I hated the Amiga's bitplanes.

[grigi]

Oh how I loved (as in loved to hate) the near and far pointer rubbish :P
And EMS was truly awful! You had to raise an interrupt saying you want this 64k block allocated in this highmem block...

the Flat 32-bit model was just so much easier to work with!

But seriously x32 is what ia32 _SHOULD_ have been. 8 registers where 2 of them are "special purpose' -> so only 6 registers...

[XorEaxEax]

But seriously x32 is what ia32 _SHOULD_ have been. 8 registers where 2 of them are "special purpose' -> so only 6 registers...

You're right, ESP and EBP are anything but 'general purpose', meanwhile those extra 8 registers we get in x86_64/x32 all are. The x86 architecture is indeed really register starved.

[Adarion]

omg, someone mentioned main mem and EMS. I had just sealed these old wounds.
EMS was so horrible. Some progs needed it, some hated it so you always had to reboot when you wanted to use a different program.

on topic:
Gentoo rocks.

[PuckPoltergeist]

If it's multilib, yes. Just like now with x86-64 distros who also provide 32-bit libraries. Gentoo is not multilib, btw. It can only build x32 packages. (Just like Gentoo AMD64 can't build 32-bit packages.) A true multilib distro might not have those limitations.

Hm, how did I build 32bit mesa (and supporting libs/software) then?

[RealNC]

Hm, how did I build 32bit mesa (and supporting libs/software) then?

Manually or through third-party tools/repos. But you already knew the answer to that, so why did you ask the question to begin with?