VOGONS


First post, by matze79

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Hi,

anyone knows if Windows 3.x uses the FPU on 286/386 Systems ?

Thx

Matthias

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Reply 1 of 12, by Jo22

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Hi Matthias,
Yes - As far as I know, Windows 3.1x is said to do so, but not Windows 3.0.

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Reply 3 of 12, by Jo22

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It had been tested thoroughly in an article of win magazine, issue 5/'92.

Funny, though, that you mention Excel. The magazine said (by analogy):
"On Windows 3.0, co-processors lived a shadowy existence: Even by Microsoft's own estimation,
they were used for Windows applications such as Excel at best."

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Reply 6 of 12, by Matth79

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Windows calculator does - also on the Pentium .... we are Pentium of Borg, you will be approximated!
The thing is, what uses floating point - by the standard Windows function calls, it will be passed to the FPU if present, emulated if not

Reply 7 of 12, by Jo22

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I forgot to mention - Microsoft once released a patch, WW0548.EXE, for systems with i387 FPUs.
Apparently, it was required for Windows 3.10 on 386 PCs and contained a new WIN87EM.DLL.

That dynamic link library does provide both virtualization and emulation of x87,
so multiple programs could safely make use of the math co-processor.

It is akin to WIN87EM.EXE, which was used in the days of Windows /386.
(Back then, it could be added optionally as load=win87em in win.ini.)

Anyway, 80486DX and 80486DX2 processors were excepted by that WW0548 patch..
I don't know if it was/is required for 286+287XL (i387 core) or 386+287 combos, though. 😕

Since the patch files in that self-extractor are dated mid-92, later releases of Win 3.x,
such as plain 3.11, WfW 3.10 or WfW 3.11, may already have shipped with a new DLL.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/8686 … for-intel-80387

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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Reply 8 of 12, by keropi

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I am resurrecting this thread because I did some quick tests on a 486slc33 system with and without a Cyrix CX83S87-33 fpu.
The rest of the system is 64kb L2 cache, CL5420 vga controller (NOT 5426/5428 stated on winmark) and 16mb of ram running wfw3.11 at 800x600/16colors.

WinG result:
p7Suisll.jpg

WinBench 3.11:
6TyciGth.jpg

so there is some boost in gfx speed - keep in mind that the 5420 does not really offer any gui acceleration, maybe a better vga sees no boost at all.

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Reply 9 of 12, by Jo22

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Thank you very much for testing, Keropi! 😎

What about the standard VGA drivers (3.1 and 3.0) ?
The 3.1 version does dirty-rectangle from what I remember, maybe it has some FPU code also ?

Anyway, just curious - since I have no physical 286/386 at hand now (all boxed up)! 😅

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In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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Reply 10 of 12, by NyLan

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Attached ww0548.exe file linked from Microsoft KB : https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/8686 … for-intel-80387 as this webpage does not exist anymore.

( direct link to MS download is still working, but for how long ? https://download.microsoft.com/download/win31 … n-us/ww0548.exe )

The WW0548.EXE file contains a revised Windows WIN87EM.DLL file. You must be using Windows version 3.1 to use this dynamic-link library (DLL) file. If you have a version of Windows earlier than 3.1, you do not need to replace your current WIN87EM.DLL file. You also do not need to replace your WIN87EM.DLL file unless you are using the Intel 80387 math coprocessor. The Intel 80486DX and 80486DX2 processors do not require the new file.

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Reply 11 of 12, by Marco

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derSammler wrote on 2017-12-13, 18:49:

The article says Win3.1 does and gives up to 80% more GUI performance.

I checked the article. Interestingly you don’t see what exactly and how they have benched. So is it wintach or standard calc or just apps. At the end you cannot say wether the fpu is supporting a (benchmark) app or the win 3.1 desktop itself.

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Reply 12 of 12, by Jo22

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+1

Another thing that comes to mind.
The article was in issue 5/92 and Windows 3.1 was released 4/92.

Could it be that the VGA drivers used in the benchmark were some sort of beta drivers?
Or that Windows 3.0 drivers were still used on Windows 3.1?

Maybe that's part of the story, not sure.
Windows 3.0 didn't feature GDI acceleration yet, neither did the driver model.

The only thing that technically already worked (since the 80s) was FPU-based acceleration.

Either by the application itself or by the drivers (the only other thing not using Microsoft code).

I'm just thinking out loud, of course. I'm as curious or clueless as you.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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