.\"	$NetBSD: whatis,v 1.15 2001/05/20 23:29:58 jhawk Exp $
.
This is the eighth major release of
.Nx
for the \*M.
.Pp
As is usual between releases, the \*M port has had many improvements
made to it\(emtoo many to detail all of them here.
.Pp
Numerous new drivers have been added.
See the supported hardware list for details.
.Pp
Some (but not all!) notable \*M-specific improvements include:
.(bullet
Migration to the ELF binary format from a.out.
You can still use your pre-1.5 a.out applications, though.
.It
Preliminary support for MCA (MicroChannel Architecture)
.bullet)
.Pp
.Nx \*V
on \*M is, as usual, also fully backward compatible with old
.Nx*M
binaries, so you don't need to recompile all your local programs
provided you set the appropriate binary compatibility options in your
kernel configuration.