Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2000 02:26:13 -0500 (EST) From: "Brandon D. Valentine" <bandix@looksharp.net> To: FreeBSD-STABLE <FreeBSD-STABLE@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: SMP oddity Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0003190222020.66730-100000@turtle.looksharp.net> In-Reply-To: <200003191700.LAA15601@aurora.sol.net>
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On Sun, 19 Mar 2000, Joe Greco wrote:
>There was, at one point, a technical issue regarding the possibility of the
>values being wrong. Check the mailing list archives.
It was probably a concern over the way APIC worked with the TSC. It
appears to be moot point now though.
>Incidentally: I will let you imagine what I did to a Sun SS10 that had a
>Sun FE nearly hysterical once... got called in to replace a disk and he
>just HAD to open up the machine to find out why the banner reported _3_
>CPU's (I don't think there's a blessed configuration with 3, maybe there
>is)... found a dual CPU card plus one rather faster single CPU, and swore
>that the disk problem ("the disk is DEAD, Jim") might be caused by my
>creative CPU engineering.
If you'd have had a digital camera back then I'm sure we'd all like to
see pictures of the guys face. Too bad they're a rather modern
commodity.
>I would think that it might be possible to have a similar situation in a
>PC unless the BIOS explicitly checks it.
>
>... Joe
It's not possible. APIC is very very picky about which CPUs it will
even boot with. If they're not the same processor model and speed the
APIC I/O chip won't even initialize, and if they're not the same
stepping you end up with periodic crashes no matter what OS you run.
-------------------------------------------------------------
| -Brandon D. Valentine bandix at looksharp.net
| bandix on EFnet IRC BVRiker on AIM
-------------------------------------------------------------
| "...and as for hackers, we note that all of those known to
| The Register are so strapped financially that seizing their
| property would be tantamount to squeezing blood from a
| stone." -- The Register, 02/17/2000
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