FPU on a future builds ?

[exxos]

Think it's pointless having a FPU. But would people actually use / code for it if I fitted a FPU socket to a future STE536 build ?

[Steve]

Anyone who makes the hardware says it's pointless, anyone who wants the hardware loves an FPU :)

[PhilC]

What software uses it? I've got a few 68882fn40s but not sure what I'd use them with?

[dml]

Having it there - or at least the slot for it - will make it easier to get some non-Atari stuff ported/working on it. That might suddenly become a thing of interest again, with super-fast STEs appearing.

I was thinking about doing more with FPU near-ish term (my last few F030 things used it) if I can get detangled from hardware projects long enough - but that's hardly enough reason to make decisions about fitting sockets to things :p

[Steve]

Yeah I do a lot with MiNT which require an FPU to work properly.

[exxos]

Anyone who makes the hardware says it's pointless, anyone who wants the hardware loves an FPU :)

:dizzy:

[exxos]

What software uses it?

GB6.. No idea what else ! :lol: Maybe @dml's rendering thing would work on the STE ?

[exxos]

Yeah I do a lot with MiNT which require an FPU to work properly.

Oh, anything in particular ?

[exxos]

Having it there - or at least the slot for it - will make it easier to get some non-Atari stuff ported/working on it. That might suddenly become a thing of interest again, with super-fast STEs appearing.

Yeah may make more interesting software if stuff can use it.

I was thinking about doing more with FPU near-ish term (my last few F030 things used it) if I can get detangled from hardware projects long enough - but that's hardly enough reason to make decisions about fitting sockets to things :p

Well, your probably the only person I know who would likely do something with the FPU...

Any ideas what stuff would run "out of the box" like your mandel? thing runs on the Falcon, but no idea if it work on a STE with a FPU ? We need a cool demo to show off the FPU :P

[dml]

Any ideas what stuff would run "out of the box" as your mandel? thing runs on the Falcon, but no idea if it work on a STE with a FPU ?

The mandel test was just supposed to be a stress test you can leave running, but too slow to be an interesting thing to watch.

The only things that come to mind are POVRay, I expect some apps made for the TT (since all TTs are meant to have one? so more likely to use it) and maybe a couple of 3D modelling things for the Falcon. Not a lot.

As Mikro points out it is slow compared to the CPU - per operation - but its better at doing some sensitive math things, like multi-bounce raytracing, 3D collision detection and some other rendering related stuff that isn't directly involved in drawing but easily goes off the rails if you don't have floating point :)

The main use on Ataris now though would be getting access to existing, portable software projects that won't work well without one. Nearly all graphics and audio processing pipelines rely on floating point now, somewhere if not everywhere. You can emulate FPU when porting software but it will be very much slower than a real 882.

Also, 68030 supports asynchronous CPU/FPU clocking/exchanges and a 50MHz FPU with a 32bit<-> link is already quick enough to be useful.

We need a cool demo to show off the FPU :P

That's what I was thinking :D