what does mean softfp. gcc related

[lei yang]

Hi list,

I confused by arm gcc flags

In gcc user guide:
 -mfloat-abi=name

`softfp' allows the generation of code using hardware floating-point
instructions, but still uses the soft-float calling conventions.
`hard' allows generation of floating-point instructions and uses
FPU-specific calling conventions.


eg:
-mfpu=vfp -mfloat-abi=softfp

what does this mean if arm support vfp instructions.
what's the different between "-mfpu=vfp -mfloat-abi=softfp" and
"-mfpu=vfp -mfloat-abi=hard".
can  someone give me a hand?

Thanks
Lei