.\"	$NetBSD: whatis,v 1.14 2000/11/13 01:22:41 hubertf 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 - too 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.