Pic on ISC's 386/ix 2.0.2 locks system hard.

Rick Richardson rick at pcrat.uucp
Tue Nov 28 18:52:43 AEST 1989


In article <LARRY.89Nov27150018 at focsys.uucp> larry at focsys.uucp (Larry Williamson) writes:

>This happened with our 1.0.6 system as well. When ever anyone here
>runs pic (DWB 2.0), our system would lock up so hard, that the only
>recourse was to power off the computer. I had to remove pic.

I think this is all due to floating point hardware/software troubles.
We saw erroneous output from pic and xclock when a 287 was installed.
Changing the coprocessor present bit in CMOS ROM fixed that.  In our
case, UNIX thought there was a 387 installed when there was only a 287
installed, and tried to execute instructions that didn't exist in the 287.
I don't know exactly what the fix is for 387's, but I think you may need
to get the 80386DX processor (yours is probably a 386 double sigma, take
a look).

As an aside, it really bugs me that Intel did squat for owners of
buggy 80386's (multiply, FP, DMA troubles ... pretty common stuff),
but promised free upgrades for owners of buggy 80486's.

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