Re: SMP possible with AMD CPUs?

[idalton@ferret.dyndns.org]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1363 bytes --]

On Wed, Aug 01, 2001 at 11:04:41PM +0300, Nadav Har'El wrote:
[snip]
> By the way, here's a fragment from the outdated (1999) SMP-HOWTO at
> http://www.phy.duke.edu/brahma/smp-faq/smp-howto-3.html explaining why SMP
> wasn't possible in kernel 2.2 and contemporary AMD processors:
> 
>      1.  Can I use my Cyrix/AMD/non-Intel CPU in SMP?
> 
>          Short answer: no.
> 
>          Long answer: Intel claims ownership to the APIC SMP scheme, and
>          unless a company licenses it from Intel they may not use it. There
>          are currently no companies that have done so. (This of course can
>          change in the future) FYI - Both Cyrix and AMD support the non-
>          proprietary OpenPIC SMP standard but currently there are no
>          motherboards that use it.

Hmmm.. I seem to recall Tyan once built a board that did OpenPIC, and I
think Fry's (funky computer/consumer electronics store in Western US)
carried it for a month or two. Just rumour?

-- 
Ferret

I will be switching my email addresses from @ferret.dyndns.org to
@mail.aom.geek on or after September 1, 2001, but not until after
Debian's servers include support. 'geek' is an OpenNIC TLD. See
http://www.opennic.unrated.net for details about adding OpenNIC
support to your computer, or ask your provider to add support to
their name servers.

[-- Attachment #2: Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 232 bytes --]