[PATCH] Utilize i686, SSE and MMX by default on FreeBSD/i386

[Julian Elischer]

John Baldwin wrote:
> On Thursday 18 March 2010 9:06:31 pm Xin LI wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I think it doesn't really make sense to by default use MACHINE_CPU=i486
>> when the kernel is built with SSE by default today.
>>
>> Attached patch uses i686 SSE MMX by default, the user can always change
>> the default setting by overriding CPUTYPE (they have to do it as SSE is
>> enabled by default for several years).
> 
> The kernel is only built with support for userland applications using SSE, it 
> does not _use_ SSE.  Similarly, the kernel is built with support for PG_NX 
> provided on 64-bit processors, but it does not do so by failing to support 
> older 32-bit processors.  I think this change is premature.  Users can already 
> set CPUTYPE in make.conf.  Also, most modern x86 server-class machines are
> 64-bit in which case they would be running FreeBSD/amd64 and using SSE
> already.
> 


and a lot of low power boxes (e.g. soekris) are 586 class.