[newbie] What is BogoMIPS?

[Nickolay Belostotsky]

Hello all!

What is BogoMIPS? What does the number depend upon?

The reason of my interest is this:

With a standart kernel (2.2.14-15mdk) my PentiumIII-500 (Katmai) (or
whatever is measured with BogoMIPS) receives rating of 499 point something.
When I installed the 2.3.99-pre9 kernel, the number leapfrogged to 999 point
something. What's the meaning of that?

Thanks,
  -- Koly