FP context switching on i386

[Joel Sherrill]

Thomas Doerfler wrote:
> Till,
>
> although I am not at all familiar with i386 ABI stuff, I would guess
> that we have to save the context during a task switch, at least when it
> was forced due to a interrupt (e.g. timer) event. In these cases there
> is no function call involved for the function that uses the FP context.
>
>   
That sounds right.  If they are preserved across subroutine
calls, they get saved in the context switch.  If not, they must
be saved as part of the code that is usually called _ISR_Dispatch.

I don't remember anything in a processor status register
on the x86 to turn off the FPU.

--joel
> wkr,
> Thomas.
>
>
> Till Straumann schrieb:
>   
>> I thought the i386 sysv ABI said that FP registers
>> are not preserved across function calls -- doesn't
>> this mean that there is no need for saving/restoring
>> the FP context ? Am I missing something ?
>>
>> I was thinking about what it takes to support SSE
>> and I believe it may essentially come for free
>> since XMM registers seem not to be callee saved
>> either. Hard to find that information though since
>> e.g.,
>>
>> http://www.sco.com/developers/devspecs/abi386-4.pdf
>>
>> doesn't mention SSE yet.
>>
>> -- Till
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>
>
>