Gold 2.7 release for the Vampire accelerators

[kolla]

Since an FPU is now included, what on earth will certain people have to whine about now

It's not an FPU, it's a Quake enabler.

[kolla]

Is the calculator always broken with an FPU (my amiga is currently boxed away)

No, calculator works fine with real FPU.

People shall use the FPU for what it is intended to on the Vampire, that is to run most of the Amiga Demos and Games requiring an FPU.

As I commented, it's not really an FPU as much as a Quake enabler - any hope for a proper FPU on V2, is long gone. In many cases, FEMU works better (more accurate) than the FPU of core 2.7, but sadly it has its issues and development has stopped. So, another FPU emulator is needed for V2.

[kolla]

BTW - I have not found a way to permanently disable the "FPU", apart from going back to core 2.5 - the VControl can only turn it off till next reboot (or to be more... hohum... accurate, next crash).

[kolla]

But this isn't business, remember? It's a hobby project.

[kolla]

Seriously ? What about Quake 2, Sysinfo, AIBB, Redrats, MWI-Kioea, Singulartity is just the beginning, software make the dance foam oil, Ghosttown metropolis, respirator stories, Lux Aeterna Lucia est, dekandence swansong, AFAOS, ScumVM FPU version, Netsurf FPU version, Warp3d FPU, Imagine 4.0, Lightwave, and all the other FPU programs working right now ?

http://www.apollo-core.com/knowledge.php?b=6¬e=12868&z=HWFbnR

Fast Hardware FPU  (to play some games or Demos)

http://wiki.apollo-accelerators.com/doku.php/fpu

People shall use the FPU for what it is intended to on the Vampire, that is to run most of the Amiga Demos and Games requiring an FPU.

I would not dare to use it for anything else than what Gunnar dictates.

[kolla]

Yes, just imagine what could happen if you rendered a scene in Lightwave using this "FPU"!!!

So you're saying that the statements I referred to are BS? If so, maybe they should be changed.

[kolla]

No, the BS was the "would not dare" and "dictates" parts of your comment.

Ah, yes, it is indeed BS that I would not dare.

But then you are saying that it's correct what it says in the announcement and the wiki?  It literally says "People shall use the FPU for what it is intended to on the Vampire, that is to run most of the Amiga Demos and Games requiring an FPU.!" with both bold and underlined, both punctuation and exclamation mark.

[kolla]

That discussion is moot, as the apollo core FPU implemented in gold core 2.7 for V2 neither simulate nor emulate anything, it clearly is its own little weirdo beast.

[kolla]

But pay Microsoft for Amiga Software? I don't think so.

WinUAE does not require Windows, just saying.

[kolla]

Apparenntly...  The "Win" in "WinUAE" doesn't stand for "Windows"...  Now I've heard everything...

Sure does, but Windows is not a requirement, for example it works also with WINE (and iirc also ReactOS).

[kolla]

Mac and Atari emulators on Amiga do not emulate CPU either. But there is more to emulate than just the CPU.

[kolla]

Vice is an open source implementation of the C64.

A C64 is just a simulation of a Turing Machine.

[kolla]

Works great here so far!

Is it "spreadsheet compatible" yet?
What does Calculator say that 1.1 - 1 is now with Gold Core 2.8?

EDIT: Never mind - did it myself...

[kolla]

This can be fixed by turning off FPU in CLI.

That is not a fix, but rather a work-around. Also, I have not found any way to let the "FPU" be permanently off, using VControl to turn it off causes a reboot into "FPU less" environment, but on next reboot, it is back on.

I mentioned about this to a friend of mine who is a programmer and he said that this kind of thing is quite common when it comes to floating point calculations and is unsurprised by it. He comes across this often when programming.

Nobody is surprised, this type of incompatibility was expected all along, and they should be taken care of. I suppose Apollo Core specific math libraries would be another work-around, though it would not help for programs not using them. Best would be if this was fixed in the core itself.

[kolla]

This has happened on every platform (from C64 to x64) I've coded on and why in Windows I now use "decimal" instead of floats or doubles...

And when you say "in Windows", you mean .NET, right?

How various floats are defined vary with the languages used, how the various languages used on Amiga will deal with this when running on AC68080 is anyone's guess I suppose. Is there even a way for software to know whether they are running on a "full" AC68080 FPU or just the limited, stripped down variant in the current Vampire boards? Is it clear exactly what kind of accuracy the Apollo Core FPU for V2 Vampires is operating with? I have only seen guesses by various programmers (alb42), the information on the "official sites" do not offer much insight. Is the current FPU implementation "done deal", or will it be improved upon further (aside from straight out bugs)?

In any case, we don't have the luxury of a thriving and active developer community on the Amiga, let alone commercial support from Microsoft and the like. What we have is a library of legacy software for which the source code mostly is lost or not available for legal /copyright reasons. And even when sources are available, porting them to current toolchains can quickly be a daunting task in itself.