I'm not very worried about lock of OS support for AVX, at least as far as PrimeGrid is concerned.
* It's unlikely anyone has bought a pre-configured computer with an AVX capable CPU that came with a version of Windows that doesn't support AVX. * People who built their own systems and loaded XP?!?! on it are certainly able to load and run Linux if they wish to, and if they loaded Win 7 without SP1 they can load SP1. * It's unclear to me why anyone would buy, sell, or build a computer with an AVX CPU with an operating system that doesn't support the instruction set. It's possible, but unlikely. * There's about a 40% increase in speed with the AVX version of that application, so if there's anyone participating in that subproject with such a computer, they probably will want to upgrade or switch their OS to take advantage of the increased performance. * After all that, if there's actually someone who wants to run their fancy new CPU with an OS that cripples its capabilities, I can always change the plan class to restrict the OS to versions that do support AVX. In short, while this is a theoretical problem, I don't think the lack of AVX support in old versions of Windows is a significant real world problem. Mike On Mon, Jul 22, 2013 at 5:18 PM, Juha <[email protected]> wrote: > AVX needs support from operating system and according to Wikipedia the > first Windows to support AVX is 7 SP1. > > Should the client report all the features that could be available and leave > it to the scheduler to decide what is safe to use or should the client > report only those features that the entire system supports? > > (SSEn needs OS support as well, but since that was added in Win 95 or 98 > maybe we can safely assume the support is always available.) > > -Juha > > > On 22 July 2013 20:09, Rom Walton <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Done. > > > > Revision: 9b2d0f992f6669d31d1996c4fc105ce22324445b > > Author: Rom Walton > > Date: 7/22/2013 1:08:36 PM > > Message: > > client: Add detection of the AVX instruction set for newer processors > > > > > > ---- > > Modified: client/hostinfo_win.cpp > > > > ----- Rom > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: boinc_dev [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of > > Wolfgang Schwieger > > Sent: Monday, July 22, 2013 1:02 PM > > To: 'BOINC Developers Mailing List' > > Subject: [boinc_dev] : BOINC (windows) doesn't report avx processor > > feature > > > > Hi all, > > > > BOINC (windows) reports these processor features for a sandy bridge CPU > > (2600k): > > Processor features: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge > > mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss htt tm pni > > ssse3 cx16 > > sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt aes syscall nx lm vmx tm2 pbe > > > > But there is no avx entry, so PrimeGrid cannot deliver the new > > GeneferAVX application to windows hosts. > > > > Can you please add this line to hostinfo_win.cpp (e.g. line 1075)? > > > > FEATURE_TEST(std_supported, (std_ecx & (1 << 28)), "avx "); > > > > > > Regards > > Wolfgang Schwieger > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > boinc_dev mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://lists.ssl.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/boinc_dev > > To unsubscribe, visit the above URL and > > (near bottom of page) enter your email address. > > _______________________________________________ > > boinc_dev mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://lists.ssl.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/boinc_dev > > To unsubscribe, visit the above URL and > > (near bottom of page) enter your email address. > > > _______________________________________________ > boinc_dev mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.ssl.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/boinc_dev > To unsubscribe, visit the above URL and > (near bottom of page) enter your email address. > _______________________________________________ boinc_dev mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ssl.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/boinc_dev To unsubscribe, visit the above URL and (near bottom of page) enter your email address.
