hugo landsman wrote in a message to Mike Bilow:

 MB> Yes, there are direct FPU instructions for all of these things.  I
 MB> don't actually know how the FPU does them, but it does them awfully
 MB> quickly.  In addition, the FPU can be sent off to do a calculation
 MB> while the main thread of execution continues, and a good optimizing
 MB> compiler can take enormous advantage of this in a practical program.

 hl> What FPU?  My 386 doesn't have one...  How good is OS/2s
 hl> emulator in doing this stuff?

There is no reasonable way to code these things other than to issue FPU
instructions.  If there is no FPU, then an exception is generated and the
FPU instruction is emulated in software by some library facility.  Under
OS/2 for native OS/2 programs, the operating system does it for you in
NPXEMLTR.DLL.
 
-- Mike


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