>
> > Intel's spec (from their web site) seems to imply that SMP is only
> > supported on Pentium+ class machines WITH a PCI bus. Is this true?
>
> No it's not. Any i486 or newer processors will do. Using of 82489DX
> local/IO APICs is necessary for i486s, though, and optional for these
> processors that implement an integrated local APIC (you may build 16-way
> SMP Pentium this way, for example, even though the integrated glue logic
> supports only 2-way SMP systems).
In that case, I'm pretty much stuffed, because there is no chip on the
motherboard labeled 82489... Bummer...
> PCI has nothing about SMP. It's just an example of peripheral bus.
> APICs use own, private serial bus to exchange interrupts and
> interprocessor messages in an Intel-compliant SMP system. See APIC
> specifications.
I thought that would be the case, but I wasn't sure.
The strange thing is, most chips on the motherboard seem to be Intel's own,
apart from an AMD N80535.
So, if this systems is built to use SMP, I am not entirely sure how they
have done it. Or is Intel labeling 82489DX chips with some other strange
numbers?
Any ideas? Anyone?
> If your board implements 82489DX chips then it may only be the matter of
> providing an MP-table replacement for Linux -- see how it's done for SGI's
> Visual Workstation in arch/i386/kernel/smp.c. Start looking at
> init_smp_config(). Basically, Linux needs to know how to wake up other
> processors and how to route interrupts (many PC BIOSes are broken wrt
> interrupt routing so you might even find yourself lucky your BIOS doesn't
> provide an MP-table).
I am prepared to invest some time into modifying the kernel to work on my
system, if it looks like it should be possible.
The main question I have now is regarding chip markings. If the board DOES
have the appropriate chips on it, then fine. If not, I don't think there is
much hope for this one...
Thanks for the pointers of what ode to look at. If this turns out to be
worth while, I will need all the help I can get because I have never before
hacked about with the Linux kernel (or any other kernel, for that matter).
Thanks.
Gordan
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