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Author Topic: Clearing up acronyms  (Read 4077 times)

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Offline Oliver

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Re: Clearing up acronyms
« on: April 26, 2006, 04:12:46 AM »
FPU's are also not just for Amigas.  Any type of CPU (or micro) may have an FPU.  Some processors have them built in as part of their instruction set, while others have to emulate the maths instructions (slowly).  For example, AMD Athlons have the FPU instructions built in, while Durons do not.  x86 machines are no longer fitted with a capacity for FPU expansion - they either have them in the CPU or not at all.  External FPU's are also called maths-coprocessors.  If you do anything requiring floating point mathematics, the FPU is invaluable.
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Offline Oliver

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Re: Clearing up acronyms
« Reply #1 on: April 26, 2006, 04:34:56 PM »
Quote

:-o Durons most certainly do! The last x86 processor that didn't have a built-in FPU was the 80486SX circa 1989!


Ooops, sorry, my bad.  Got that from a salesman.  Never bought either of those chips.   :sealed: I'll just shut-it now.
Good good study, day day up!