Very Computer

I am seriously thinking about getting a Cyrix DLC (probably a 40Mhz) and
am looking for opinions from Linux users that have them.

Do they give a good improvement?  most of the stuff I read gives them about
75% of the speed of a DX at the same Mhz.  I can live with that better than I
can spending $500+ on a 486DX.

I'd probably also get a DLC "aware" motherboard for the cache capabilities,
probably one with a 486 slot for later upgrades.  Can Linux use the cache on
the DLC?  I've seen people asking about it, but have yet to see an answer.

Any other info (praise/warnings to DLC's etc) would be great!!!
    -Dan
--
Daniel A. Newcombe                                  Clayton State College
Computing Services                                  Morrow, GA 30260

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he is the source of the following info.
The cache-enabling patch to the Kernel should be on
sunsite somewhere.

The Cyrix 486DLC/40
-------------------
        I recently installed this 486 clone in my motherboard.  You
shouldn't do this if you do not have a "REAL" DLC motherboard.  My
system is now around twice as fast as before.  Floating point with
a Cyrix 387 is better than if you have some other brand FPU but most
other FPU's will still work.  Almost everything in my system is faster
now, even disk intensive tasks (the CPU does interrupts faster and all
I/O under Linux is interrupt driven).  

        I have one single problem.  When running programs that
access the sound driver, especially the FM synthesizer, I get
"Floating point exception" once in awhile.  I cannot play ANY midi
files now.  I am thinking (and hoping) this is some obscure but in
either the sound driver or my sound card (how, I don't know).

        But, that is a very minor point.  This is a highly recommended
upgrade.  Here are a few tips:

* it is fastest if you use a "Cyrix" 387 with it.  The Cyrix-Cyrix combo
  is noticeably faster than if you use another brand FPU.  Some other
  brand FPU's have actually been reported to run SLOWER after the
  upgrade (The IIT's from what I remember).
* You MUST have DLC compliant bios to get any decent speed.  If you have
  DLC bios, there will be an advanced option for turning on the 486's
  internal cache.  If you have a 386 currently on board, that option will
  be disabled but you should be able to see it.
* You MUST have cache-coherency circuits in your motherboard to get any
  kind of speed.

:         I have one single problem.  When running programs that
: access the sound driver, especially the FM synthesizer, I get
: "Floating point exception" once in awhile.  I cannot play ANY midi
: files now.  I am thinking (and hoping) this is some obscure but in
: either the sound driver or my sound card (how, I don't know).

:         But, that is a very minor point.  This is a highly recommended
: upgrade.  Here are a few tips:

: * it is fastest if you use a "Cyrix" 387 with it.  The Cyrix-Cyrix combo
:   is noticeably faster than if you use another brand FPU.  Some other
:   brand FPU's have actually been reported to run SLOWER after the
:   upgrade (The IIT's from what I remember).

I run a Texas Instruments 486DLC with an IIT 487DLC.  It does not give me
any errors at all. When I was using a ULSI 387 though, the machine would
hang if I started doing intense numeric coprocessor work.  I think this is
because the 387 is not capable of working with the internal 486DLC cache
because it can do direct writes to memory.

Matthew
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