Thank you for your patience,Jim.You are so kind.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Carter" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "姜国伟" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, July 08, 2006 1:16 AM
Subject: Re: [autofs] about mainboard driver


> On Fri, 7 Jul 2006, ??? wrote:
> 
> > > I don't think Linux has a specific "mainboard driver" like Windows does; 
> > > hardware initialization is done with the subsystems (e.g. memory 
> > > management) to which it's relevant, and where necessary the actions are 
> > > conditional on the chipset, with both run-time tests and the possibility 
> > > to 
> > > exclude a whole class of processors/chipsets at compile time.
> > 
> > Hi,Jim .I don't understand your meaning.Could you explain more particularly?
> 
> The kernel (.config) has a collection of configuration options so you can 
> pick which architecture, and which variants of that architecture, you want 
> to compile the kernel for.  These are used to turn on and configure various 
> features.  For example, in the x86_64 architecture, you tell it you want 
> to support AMD Opteron or Athlon64 and it will define MK8, whereas for an 
> Intel Xeon or Pentium-4 with extended memory you would have MPSC defined.
> These are then interrogated to set, for example, the level 1 cache line 
> size (X86_L1_CACHE_BYTES and X86_L1_CACHE_SHIFT).  These are used in 
> ./arch/x86_64/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S to align some frequently used kernel 
> variables, like "jiffies", for fastest access.  I don't see anyplace else 
> where these #defines are used.
> 
> As another example, the Via Centaur processor has an onboard crypto engine, 
> and you need to set CRYPTO_DEV_PADLOCK to use it, if your kernel may run on 
> a Via Centaur.  
> 
> The developers try to avoid special cases for particular processors, but
> bits and pieces like this are scattered various places around the kernel. 
> In Windows there is a specific driver file for each processor type, and I 
> don't know any more about what's in it than anyone else outside of 
> Microsoft, but I assume that they collect the various special cases in that 
> one file.  That's not what Linux does, and you can't identify a particular 
> part of the kernel as the "mainboard driver".
> 
> I think this discussion is kind of getting off the topic of autofs.
> 
> James F. Carter          Voice 310 825 2897    FAX 310 206 6673
> UCLA-Mathnet;  6115 MSA; 405 Hilgard Ave.; Los Angeles, CA, USA  90095-1555
> Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]    http://www.math.ucla.edu/~jimc (q.v. for PGP key)
> 

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