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MultiProcessor Specification 1.4% ?& T* v2 Y4 S2 Y. B
0 g6 I6 N4 {- a2 |! qThe MultiProcessor Specification, hereafter known as the “MP specification,” defines an2 i4 j q4 Q6 R2 _% F. j9 Q7 t1 r% e4 P
enhancement to the standard to which PC manufacturers design DOS-compatible systems.
0 e) t2 A. r* _' Q# jMP-capable operating systems will be able to run without special customization on multiprocessor7 q' j+ j1 q: p7 L! L8 ~9 t
systems that comply with this specification. End users who purchase a compliant multiprocessor! D8 f/ b2 x- [, G4 Z
system will be able to run their choice of operating systems.
$ V4 G8 q% t( b1 W5 V# UThe MP specification covers PC/AT-compatible MP platform designs based on Intel processor
7 M5 |8 U2 ] P: g5 X% i- {architectures and Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (APIC) architectures. The term0 J* D( e7 e; b. T& A1 K/ Q
“PC/AT-compatible” here refers to the software-visible components of the PC/AT, not to hardware7 A) u4 a! ]: O( ?2 `
features, such as the bus implementation, that are not visible to software. An implementation of
' m! |4 p9 X9 j7 I1 C; }5 ]8 Ythis specification may incorporate one or more industry standard buses, such as ISA, EISA, MCA,1 H% @* C# N- v7 v0 M5 z
PCI, or other OEM-specific buses. |
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