Re: smp

[Nadav Har'El]

On Wed, Aug 01, 2001, Orna Agmon wrote about "smp":
> Hi all.
> Last year I was told that linux does not support well an smp of AMD CPU-s,
> only pentium or celeron. Does anybody know if this is (still?) true?
> 
> thanks,
>       Orna.

Indeed, kernel 2.2 did not support AMD's SMP properly. From the old SMP HOWTO
(http://www.phy.duke.edu/brahma/smp-faq/smp-howto-3.html):

     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.

The same answer appeared in the FAQ until 2000, and I can't find any new
information about it. You might want to ask in the linux-kernel mailing
list - or let's see if someone on this list knows the answer.

Or: just get a Pentium SMP. How much can the price difference be?

-- 
Nadav Har'El                        |       Wednesday, Aug  1 2001, 12 Av 5761
[EMAIL PROTECTED]             |-----------------------------------------
Phone: +972-53-245868, ICQ 13349191 |I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy
http://nadav.harel.org.il           |every minute of it.