Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cs.dal.ca!agc!courtney
From: courtney@agc.uucp (courtney)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.i386
Subject: Cyrix/Weitek conflict?
Message-ID: <1990Feb14.180532.142@agc.uucp>
Date: 14 Feb 90 18:05:32 GMT
Organization: Atlantic Geoscience Centre
Lines: 32

I have just bought a Cyrix 387 coprocessor to replace
a burntout 80387 in my 20 Mhz Dell 310i running Dell
Unix V3.2 ( aka ISC?). I also have
a Weitek 1167 coprocessor installed ( both purchased
from Microway). My C compiler only supports the 387
and my NDP fortran works fine with the Weitek. Great.

The problem :

I write a fortran program that divides by zero and does
a core dump. The compilation is set to use the Weitek.
I run "sdb" to find out where the error is and the 
system crashes. Kernel panic and other stuff dumped to 
the screen. ( I really don't want to recreate the
situation to describe in fine detail the nature of the
system crash - I'd hate to disrupt the file system.)
I take out the Cyrix and "sdb" runs as I would have
expected. I had never experienced this problem with
the Intel coprocessor.

The question :

Has anyone else noted any difference between the Cyrix 387 chip
and the old Intel 80387? The Cyrix runs fast - but it's not
worth a system crash.

Bob Courtney
Atlantic Geoscience Centre
Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

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