[gentoo-dev] Re: mmxext flag

[Ryan Hill <deemkay@gmail.com>]

Drake Wyrm <wyrm <at> haell.com> writes:

> > MMX2 is supported by Pentium 3 Katmai and Coppermine processors.
> > MMXEXT is supported by Athlon processors.  As far as I can tell
> > they're two very different things.  I'm confused.
> 
> You, and a lot of other people.
> 
> Also, I should correct my earlier statement. "MMX2" is _a_ marketing
> name for the "Extensions to the MMX Instruction Set", which were
> apparently introduced in the AMD-K6-2E+ and AMD-K6-IIIE+. You're right,
> though; the Athlon was the first mainline processor with mmx(2|ext).
> These extensions were subsequently adopted by Intel into the Pentium II
> much in the same way AMD adopted Intel's original MultiMedia eXtensions.
> 
> In my further research on the subject, it looks like Intel has been of
> late bragging up it's whiz-bang new "Intel Wireless MMX2 Technology".
> It's apparently an instruction set extension targeted at all-in-one
> cell-phone-camera-music-player-PDA gadgets. As far as I can tell, it's
> the only time Intel has used the term "MMX2".
> 
> Therefore, I recommend the use of "mmxext" to refer to the original
> multimedia extensions extensions, to avoid aggravating an
> already-confusing situation.

thanks, that makes things a little less murky.  i see that back in 98-99,
everyone was buzzing about the new KNI/MMX2 instruction set, but all references
to it seem to have disappeared when it was released.  the thing that confuses me
most is that MPlayer insists i have MMX2 support.  now that its flag has changed
to mmxext i find it strange that to enable MMX2 support for an Intel chip, I
have to enable support for an Athlon specific technology (at least that's the
only references i could find indicate).

but this is all semantics anyways.  thanks for the prompt reply.

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