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Date:      Fri, 10 Oct 2003 06:00:26 -0500 (CDT)
From:      Mike Silbersack <silby@silby.com>
To:        Joseph Koshy <jkoshy@FreeBSD.ORG>
Cc:        freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Determining CPU features / cache organization from userland
Message-ID:  <20031010055857.M1695@odysseus.silby.com>
In-Reply-To: <20031010103640.6F5A216A4BF@hub.freebsd.org>
References:  <20031010103640.6F5A216A4BF@hub.freebsd.org>

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On Fri, 10 Oct 2003, Joseph Koshy wrote:

> Hi -hackers,
>
> I'm looking for ways that a userland program can determine the CPU
> features available on an SMP machine -- processor model, stepping
> numbers, supported features, cache organization etc.
>
> For example, on some x86 processors the CPUID instruction could be
> used to determine some of these parameters, but using this instruction
> in an SMP context is a little tricky since we do not know which CPU
> gets to execute the instruction.

At least in the Intel world, multiprocessor systems are _always_ supposed
to have matching processor steppings, so the reliability of the
information should be very good indeed.

Mike "Silby" Silbersack


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