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MultiProcessor Specification 1.4
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8 a ~! e* o' L' n5 b, o- NThe MultiProcessor Specification, hereafter known as the “MP specification,” defines an [1 k/ ~2 K, o
enhancement to the standard to which PC manufacturers design DOS-compatible systems.0 T6 R9 E! q! k& v
MP-capable operating systems will be able to run without special customization on multiprocessor
0 u% E7 v6 n" S& Nsystems that comply with this specification. End users who purchase a compliant multiprocessor7 N. `" N* z! c4 @3 ~, Q7 i
system will be able to run their choice of operating systems.
p: t# Y' j/ S( @The MP specification covers PC/AT-compatible MP platform designs based on Intel processor
$ s0 k7 n/ P2 barchitectures and Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (APIC) architectures. The term
9 p( H1 T5 b3 ]8 ^7 N* p1 h; z9 r“PC/AT-compatible” here refers to the software-visible components of the PC/AT, not to hardware7 w' a2 B' k |( S
features, such as the bus implementation, that are not visible to software. An implementation of
/ e$ D7 a0 y2 W( lthis specification may incorporate one or more industry standard buses, such as ISA, EISA, MCA,
3 T8 {& Z$ l" ]1 Y' ?PCI, or other OEM-specific buses. |
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