Linux can emulate a math coprocessor (used for floating point
operations) if you don't have one. 486DX and Pentium processors have
a math coprocessor built in, 486SX and 386 do not, unless you added
a 487DX or 387, respectively. (The messages during boot time can
give you some hints here ["man dmesg"].) Everyone needs either a
coprocessor or this emulation.

If you don't have a math coprocessor, you need to say Y here; if you
say Y here even though you have a coprocessor, the coprocessor will
be used nevertheless. (This behavior can be changed with the kernel
command line option "no387", which comes handy if your coprocessor
is broken. Try "man bootparam" or see the documentation of your boot
loader (lilo or loadlin) about how to pass options to the kernel at
boot time.) This means that it is a good idea to say Y here if you
intend to use this kernel on different machines.

More information about the internals of the Linux math coprocessor
emulation can be found in <file:arch/x86/math-emu/README>.

If you are not sure, say Y; apart from resulting in a 66 KB bigger
kernel, it won't hurt.

source code:

arch/parisc/math-emu/