RFC: Adding a hw.features[2] sysctl

[Igor Mozolevsky]

On 14/01/2008, Nathan Lay <nslay at comcast.net> wrote:

> I have to agree with Daniel here.  ioctl is probably inappropriate.
> sysctl is already intended for gathering or setting system information
> by both programs and/or people.  cat'ing /dev/cpuinfo sounds reminiscent
> to Linux /proc.
>
> sysctl() could fill a cpu features bitmask for programs.
> sysctl dev.cpu.features (or something like that) could output those
> features in human readable format.

So how would you MIB these:

"
CPU: Dual Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 280 (2411.12-MHz K8-class CPU)
  Origin = "AuthenticAMD"  Id = 0x20f12  Stepping = 2
  Features=0x178bfbff<FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,APIC,SEP,MTRR,PGE,MCA,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,CLFLUSH,MMX,FXSR,SSE,SSE2,HTT>
  Features2=0x1<SSE3>
  AMD Features=0xe2500800<SYSCALL,NX,MMX+,FFXSR,LM,3DNow!+,3DNow!>
  AMD Features2=0x3<LAHF,CMP>
  Cores per package: 2
"

? Would you need four separate MIBs? Have four separate bitmasks in
one MIB, what order in? Is there XXX Features3, what would happen
then?


Igor