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[ts-7000] Re: Newbie question before buying TS-7xxx

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Subject: [ts-7000] Re: Newbie question before buying TS-7xxx
From: "j.chitte" <>
Date: Tue, 03 Aug 2010 11:18:52 -0000

--- In  "" 
<> wrote:
>
> > > Maverick Crunch (TM): maverick as in selling fundamentally screwed 
> > > silicon and discontinuing the product before ever releasing a working 
> > > version. Crunch as in brick wall for all the mugs thinking they bought 
> > > floating point capable hardware.
> > >    
> > Its terrible.  Probably the worst "FPU" ever made.
> > 
> >  From reading the bugs there are some pretty serious ones in there - 
> > like an invalid operation leading to memory corruption.  (So much for 
> > security.)  Its also 11 cycles per operation - so its faster than 
> > software FP; but pretty poor overall.
> 
> Is this buggy FPU only in the 200MHz versions of the ARM9-based TS-boards, or 
> does it also affect the 250MHz and 500MHz?
> 
> Can I disable FPU usage all together in the kernel and/or clib so I'm certain 
> the FPU won't be used?
> 
> I was initially interested in the TS-7260 but perhaps it's worth choosing 
> TS-7550 instead.  Unfortunately it doesn't have any ADCs...
> 
> 
> --Stephan.
>

FPU is disabled in the std TS products (for good reasons). It's a kernel option 
so unless you start building your own kernel you will not need to address the 
issue other than knowing you don't have the FPU.

The sidewinder software fp seems very good for what it is so you'll need to 
assess whether the speed hit is acceptable. Dig here for more on this topic and 
see martin Guy's site (if it works) where he posted some benchmarks.

There is theoretically a patchset by Martin for gcc that makes gcc create code 
that carefully steps around all the bugs in the hardware. 

Trying to get that to work seems like another project in itself.

The 12bit ADC of the 7200 boards is a great feature that you don't see of many 
off the shelf units. 

It was the major clinching factor for me and seems to be well implemented in 
the hardware.





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