386SX wrote on 2021-02-12, 10:59:

Hi, […]
Show full quote

Hi,

considering in the past even 387 NPU sw emulators existed, did a SSE2 sort of emulator existed or something that helped using SSE1 or other logics to "emulate" this feature? Cause that's the main reason Athlon XP are useless into a modern o.s. installations. While I think modern o.s. like Win 8.x require even more than SSE2 (can't install it into a Socket 478 Northwood) at least latest Linux do run with SSE2 Pentium4 and even quite well. Athlon XP are mostly useless first in the browsers beside some third party compilation of alternative ones, and who knows many other sw written with SSE2 check in mind.
I've read that with Bosch emulation someone did install o.s. and sw written for SSE2 so I suppose something might have been done for it.
Thanks

Everything is possible, but demand is just too small unless somebody will do it for fun.
In the past there was SSE3 emulator for SSE2 processors developed for x86 'hackintoshes' (Tiger and Leopard times).

zyga64 wrote on 2021-02-12, 11:20:

386SX wrote on 2021-02-12, 10:59:

Hi, […]
Show full quote

Hi,

considering in the past even 387 NPU sw emulators existed, did a SSE2 sort of emulator existed or something that helped using SSE1 or other logics to "emulate" this feature? Cause that's the main reason Athlon XP are useless into a modern o.s. installations. While I think modern o.s. like Win 8.x require even more than SSE2 (can't install it into a Socket 478 Northwood) at least latest Linux do run with SSE2 Pentium4 and even quite well. Athlon XP are mostly useless first in the browsers beside some third party compilation of alternative ones, and who knows many other sw written with SSE2 check in mind.
I've read that with Bosch emulation someone did install o.s. and sw written for SSE2 so I suppose something might have been done for it.
Thanks

Everything is possible, but demand is just too small unless somebody will do it for fun.
In the past there was SSE3 emulator for SSE2 processors developed for x86 'hackintoshes' (Tiger and Leopard times).

Yeah I suppose that's the problem. I suppose Athlon XP beside the freqs jump might have introduced these features in the last models, they weren't that bad. But SSE 1 was out there since much time, I think it was too easy to just clock it higher and release them as it was done, not to mention the cost that might have been spent for a core protection on the package itself. I liked Athlon Socket A solution back then but I reconsidered their choices lately in the years. Latest Socket 478 cpus even had SSE3...

386SX wrote on 2021-02-12, 11:46:

Latest Socket 478 cpus even had SSE3...

Yes. But not SSSE3 (introduced in Core2). And this was requirement for OSX to run.
Pentium 4 Prescott for socket478 was an attempt to make money on an aging platform. Same piece of silicon in a different package.
Similar to previous Overdrive processors...
Some hardware are getting obsolete regardless we like it or not.

In the high school I had Commodore 128D with REU and 1581 3.5' disk drive. GEOS on this machine run snappier than Windows 3.1 on Amstrad PC2286 (286 12Mhz 1MB RAM, 40 MB HDD) I also had 😀
I was sad, because my schoolmates mocked me when I tried to tell them that I can still can do so much with my Commodore...
Now, even though I regret the fact that we are buying newer computers instead of optimizing the algorithms, I am not too bothered by it 😀

zyga64 wrote on 2021-02-12, 13:16:

Yes. But not SSSE3 (introduced in Core2). And this was requirement for OSX to run. Pentium 4 Prescott for socket478 was an atte […]
Show full quote

386SX wrote on 2021-02-12, 11:46:

Latest Socket 478 cpus even had SSE3...

Yes. But not SSSE3 (introduced in Core2). And this was requirement for OSX to run.
Pentium 4 Prescott for socket478 was an attempt to make money on an aging platform. Same piece of silicon in a different package.
Similar to previous Overdrive processors...
Some hardware are getting obsolete regardless we like it or not.

In the high school I had Commodore 128D with REU and 1581 3.5' disk drive. GEOS on this machine run snappier than Windows 3.1 on Amstrad PC2286 (286 12Mhz 1MB RAM, 40 MB HDD) I also had 😀
I was sad, because my schoolmates mocked me when I tried to tell them that I can still can do so much with my Commodore...
Now, even though I regret the fact that we are buying newer computers instead of optimizing the algorithms, I am not too bothered by it 😀

Sure but at least both Overdrive and Prescott (even if some Northwood oriented mainboard voltage regulators would have something to say about that...😁) would help theorically the user to not change everything hoping that as said the code optimization would have been the main target of the market while i suppose nowdays, when sw calculators weight hundreds megabytes like components drivers, antivirus are like benchmarks, browsers are heavier than a running rendering 3DMark.. well.. the hope for that disappeared. And usually many people I know are so happy to the modern tech.. change a smartphone just cause the kernel is not updated or cause the internal ram is properly decided to be the minimun amount for a couple of years of lifetime..
I'd hope to come back to 386DX cpus and text based softwares..

I agree with you completely. Moreover I'm here because of it.
I don't like the fact that computer is doing something in the meantime, and exchanging data with some servers in the world.
Rather, I would prefer the computer to do what I want it to do. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any hope on the horizon...
Current trend is to move everything to the cloud. Even large companies are give up maintaining server rooms.

We can run to opensource OS like Linux, FreeBSD etc, but more and more applications are transferred online and there we have absolutely no control over what happens.

We start to speak like our grandparents - "in our time it was just ..."

...different. Sorry for the offtopic !

Windows SSE Driver for Transmeta Crusoe CPU
http://www.geocities.ws/dalex_257/
http://www.geocities.ws/dalex_257/driver_technical.html

zyga64 wrote on 2021-02-12, 13:58:

Rather, I would prefer the computer to do what I want it to do.

That was why I learned to build my own PCs in the early/mid 90s and then how to program them. Not before accidentally deleting the entire contents of my friend's 40MB hard drive in uni though!

zyga64 wrote on 2021-02-12, 13:58:

...
We can run to opensource OS like Linux, FreeBSD etc,..

We start to speak like our grandparents - "in our time it was just ..."

In fact I always had doubts about alternative o.s in the past but I ended up agreeing that for the generic users they bring back that old style feeling to install what you want and not what you don't simply need. But unfortunately is not like even modern distributions are really that light beside some less popular versions. But at least I can choose.
Even if some thing are not always updated.. sometimes I read news about old hardware being left out of future versions basically giving the user the choice of having only a couple of choices for example for the GPUs in both hw and sw with different results.

Imho like the older people we actually understood that not always progress means better "no matter what". O.S. changed just like changed the software.. changed imho in the deep meaning of them and as already thought other times I think the point is buying a product as a closed box supported hw/sw or having it for "free" like buying a phone with preinstalled apps, agreements, contracts, logics that in the 90's would have make people thinking a bit about them if compared to the old integrated IE browser story.

You can try the Intel SDE. Unknown if it will work on Athlon XP. May also need to try older versions.