GDC release 0.23

[kris]

Daniel Keep wrote:
> 
> Anders F Björklund wrote:
> 
>>>...
>>>
>>>Seriously, the viability of D as a numeric computing platform is at
>>>stake here.
>>
>>Only on the PowerPC platform, though. Maybe on SPARC too, not sure.
>>(it might have real 128-bit ?) But not on the DMD platform: Intel,
>>there it will have full 80-bit support (even if not too portable).
>>
>>--anders
> 
> 
> Make that x86... I read somewhere a few days ago that there IS no 80-bit
> real type on x86-64 machines; AMD basically went "80-bit?  Who the hell
> uses that junk?  Just use SSE you pack of anachronistic pansies!" and
> nuked the x87 in 64-bit code (you can still use it, but ONLY in 32-bit
> code).
> 
> And of course, what does SSE use?  IEEE 32-bit or 64-bit floats.
> 
> Ugh.  On the bright side, at least float and double are pretty safe :P
> 
> 	-- Daniel
> 

Yep. Read this:

http://blogs.msdn.com/ericflee/archive/2004/07/02/172206.aspx

It clearly states Win64 intended to eschew x87 register-saves (during a 
context switch), but may have had a change of heart?

AMD have been pretty clear about x86-64, in 64bit mode, having *no* 
support for x87 -- refer to page 20 of this: 
http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/DownloadableAssets/dwamd_AMD_GDC_2004_MW.pdf

That pretty much rules out the use of 80bit real on future platforms? 
Looks like things have to revert to double after all?