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MultiProcessor Specification 1.4
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+ F! i1 W; t/ K) o) rThe MultiProcessor Specification, hereafter known as the “MP specification,” defines an6 `' o* A a6 g% N& L! l& Z+ c
enhancement to the standard to which PC manufacturers design DOS-compatible systems.1 c" {2 w. z3 u2 d
MP-capable operating systems will be able to run without special customization on multiprocessor
$ u6 |' E: L6 y3 E$ ~% Ysystems that comply with this specification. End users who purchase a compliant multiprocessor ` k4 f& J9 D
system will be able to run their choice of operating systems.
, t9 F+ B' d) S5 [The MP specification covers PC/AT-compatible MP platform designs based on Intel processor
% z* h4 l( @7 l8 K) karchitectures and Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (APIC) architectures. The term
: K. a8 N; {8 K! k- R“PC/AT-compatible” here refers to the software-visible components of the PC/AT, not to hardware( c# V/ ^& G- u# s
features, such as the bus implementation, that are not visible to software. An implementation of
! W( e L$ o- Z( k) ?" W* U# |, }this specification may incorporate one or more industry standard buses, such as ISA, EISA, MCA,) @! Z" {7 X( y9 b
PCI, or other OEM-specific buses. |
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