i686 build of Fedora Core

[Elliot Lee]

On Wed, 28 Jul 2004, Angelo wrote:

> Fedora Core is an excellent distro, it is complete, easy and features a 
> lot of packages.
> 
> I think that the only thing it misses is to release an i686 optimized 
> version (just like i386 and amd64). Packages compiled with that 
> optimization would be a lot faster, and i think that 99% of fedora users 
> run a i686-compatible processor:
> - Intel sold starting from 1995: Pentium Pro, Pentium 2, Pentium 3, 
> Pentium 4
> - All AMDs
> 
> The i686 is really more powerful, it is pipelined, it features hardcoded 
> floating point (FPU), it can process more than 1 instruction per cycle.. 
> but all this features are all wasted if it isn't compiled to use them. 
> GCC can take advantage of all the new instruction provided with i686 
> really well, the builds will be identical to the i386 one and you can 
> provide both archs in two different folders.
> 
> Just one question, why not ?

The new instructions available on the i686 don't give a substantial
performance benefit in most situations, and it would be a big effort (and
lots more disk space) to add in i686 builds of everything. The packages
that are the most performance-intensive (glibc and the kernel) do have
i686-only builds already available. The rest of the Fedora Core packages
are presently built with -mtune=pentium4, which does all the scheduling &
optimization for a Pentium4, but makes sure that the packages will still
run on an i386 if needed.

Best,
-- Elliot
The daring is in the doing

http://people.redhat.com/sopwith/