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MultiProcessor Specification 1.4# h& x) E ^7 S; c7 u6 Q& Y
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The MultiProcessor Specification, hereafter known as the “MP specification,” defines an
; ]; T# l; o6 [( J' zenhancement to the standard to which PC manufacturers design DOS-compatible systems.$ B$ B" B I; o2 g, f
MP-capable operating systems will be able to run without special customization on multiprocessor4 v1 |9 V5 j! k/ z+ ^3 U& S4 n
systems that comply with this specification. End users who purchase a compliant multiprocessor p. F: E4 W$ D! s9 a7 N
system will be able to run their choice of operating systems.
- |4 c( U# c% O8 R0 `The MP specification covers PC/AT-compatible MP platform designs based on Intel processor
% Q6 Y5 q" c( P! A+ T- c0 harchitectures and Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (APIC) architectures. The term: L3 {4 z# s# w) x
“PC/AT-compatible” here refers to the software-visible components of the PC/AT, not to hardware
. N0 V6 h! } m; M5 O3 |features, such as the bus implementation, that are not visible to software. An implementation of
6 M0 W# T9 w5 r8 ~this specification may incorporate one or more industry standard buses, such as ISA, EISA, MCA,. v& \4 r/ b; O! V" b+ w9 s/ t
PCI, or other OEM-specific buses. |
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