RFD: Should we remove the HLT check? (was Re: [PATCH 1/8] x86: avoid check hlt if no timer interrupts)
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From: Alan Cox on 7 May 2010 18:20 > I'd be cool skipping it for family 5 or newer. I'm just wondering if we > should kill it completely -- IIRC it was only a handful of 386/486 > systems which had problems, usually due to marginal power supplies which > couldn't handle the noise of a variable load (DOS not having any power > management would run at a reliable 100% load) -- that's not exactly the > type of systems which would have survived to modern day. Also SMM and hardware bugs on some platforms - Cyrix MediaGX 5510 for example where a hlt at the wrong moment during ATA transfers hung the box until power cycle. But all old old stuff. Alan -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo(a)vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
From: H. Peter Anvin on 7 May 2010 18:30 On 05/07/2010 03:24 PM, Alan Cox wrote: >> I'd be cool skipping it for family 5 or newer. I'm just wondering if we >> should kill it completely -- IIRC it was only a handful of 386/486 >> systems which had problems, usually due to marginal power supplies which >> couldn't handle the noise of a variable load (DOS not having any power >> management would run at a reliable 100% load) -- that's not exactly the >> type of systems which would have survived to modern day. > > Also SMM and hardware bugs on some platforms - Cyrix MediaGX 5510 for > example where a hlt at the wrong moment during ATA transfers hung the box > until power cycle. But all old old stuff. I think family < 5 seems a reasonable cutoff. Note that the ATA transfer bug you describe above would not be caught by the existing check. -hpa -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo(a)vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
From: Arjan van de Ven on 7 May 2010 18:40 On 5/7/2010 15:24, Alan Cox wrote: >> I'd be cool skipping it for family 5 or newer. I'm just wondering if we >> should kill it completely -- IIRC it was only a handful of 386/486 >> systems which had problems, usually due to marginal power supplies which >> couldn't handle the noise of a variable load (DOS not having any power >> management would run at a reliable 100% load) -- that's not exactly the >> type of systems which would have survived to modern day. > > Also SMM and hardware bugs on some platforms - Cyrix MediaGX 5510 for > example where a hlt at the wrong moment during ATA transfers hung the box > until power cycle. But all old old stuff. but a boot time "does hlt work at all" check won't catch that. -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo(a)vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
From: Alan Cox on 7 May 2010 18:50
On Fri, 07 May 2010 15:27:34 -0700 "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa(a)zytor.com> wrote: > On 05/07/2010 03:24 PM, Alan Cox wrote: > >> I'd be cool skipping it for family 5 or newer. I'm just wondering if we > >> should kill it completely -- IIRC it was only a handful of 386/486 > >> systems which had problems, usually due to marginal power supplies which > >> couldn't handle the noise of a variable load (DOS not having any power > >> management would run at a reliable 100% load) -- that's not exactly the > >> type of systems which would have survived to modern day. > > > > Also SMM and hardware bugs on some platforms - Cyrix MediaGX 5510 for > > example where a hlt at the wrong moment during ATA transfers hung the box > > until power cycle. But all old old stuff. > > I think family < 5 seems a reasonable cutoff. > > Note that the ATA transfer bug you describe above would not be caught by > the existing check. MediaGX5510 would I'm pretty certain be 486 reporting anyway -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo(a)vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/ |