Linux SMP HOWTO - Linux Howto

10. What's new ?

v1.14, 9 july 2002

First release since in almost two years
Added article Multiprocessor Specification Support (Randy Dunlap)
Added explanation of "unexpected IO-APIC" problem
Added a note on changes between 2.2.x and 2.4.x kernels
Added new section update on SPARC (Lionel, trollhunter Bouchpan-Lerust-Juery)
Added various questions and answers
Deleted "SMP specific limit with current kernel (2.2)": outdated
Changed word "current" from kernel 2.2 documents

v1.12.1, 25 october 2000

Put all authors in Bryant, Hartner, Qi and Venkitachalam paper

v1.12, 22 october 2000

Explanation on why not trust Xosview on scheduling (Rik van Riel)
A pointer to an article that compares 2.2 and 2.4 kernels (Ray Bryant)

v1.11, 8 october 2000

Linux boots on a Sun E1000 with 24 CPUs
Linux boots on a AlphaServer with 31 CPUs

v1.10, 5 october 2000

New linux-smp mailing-list adress : linux-smp at vger.kernel.org (me)
Tell where to find RTC setting in kernel config (Patrick Doyle)
glossary updated and concepts added (from a french version made by Ludovic Danigo)
Fixed an inconsistency (Matthias Schniedermeyer)
Deleted wrong links (Johan Ekenberg)

v1.9.1, 28 september 2000

updated with a submission from Stig Telfer detailing SMP support on API Alpha systems

v1.9, 13 january 2000

Remember to disable all BIOS power-save features (Osamu Aoki)
Explain how to access to Compaq server into advanced configuration mode (Adrian Portelli)

v1.8, 8 november 1999

quad-celeron motherboard was a hoax, restored old paragraph (Simen Timian Thoresen)

v1.7, 6 november 1999

new introduction (C. Polisher aka cp)
numerous typo and grammatical fixes (cp)
introductory paragraph on kernel compilation (cp)
introductory paragraph on SMP need (cp)
reference on KAI optimizing compiler (Gero Wedemann)
quad-celeron motherboard exists (Jeffrey H. Ingber)

v1.6, 21 october 1999

added information on xosview scheduling perturbation
added "APIC error interrupt on CPU#n" message information
added information on hard lockup
deleted section "How to optain maximum performance" (was obsolete)
added info on dual systems with different x86 procs (a Celeron and a P-II)

v1.5, 4 october 1999

more precision in PSET description

v1.4, 30 september 1999

precize to enable MTRR support for an x86 SMP kernel (me)

v1.3, 29 september 1999

many many grammar and typographical fixes (Wade Hampton aka hww)
added info in short introduction related to 2.2/2.4/2.0 diffs (hww)
added step by step things to do to recompile a kernel (hww and me)
added info related to SMP/UP modules problems (hww)
added precision in Posix Threads section related to user (hww) vs. kernel threads (hww)
new item about NFS and kernel lock (hww)
new item about kernel lock without message (hww)
new item about debugging lockup problems (hww)
added info about heating problems (hww)
miscellaneous updates I've forget about (hww)
new item about floppy access and sound (hww)

v1.2, 27 september 1999

name change: this document is now a HOWTO. TWD, and fast! (Guylhem Aznar)

v1.1, 26 september 1999

added a link to first Chris Pirih FAQ draft
expanted an IRQ related problems

v1.00, 25 september 1999

first upgrade in a long long time!
reprocessed the whole FAQ: 2.2 is here and 2.4 soon
added kernel locking information from Ingo Molnar
deleted item "How will my application perform under SMP?": outdated
deleted item "My SMP system is locking up all the time.": outdated
deleted item "You are running 2.0.35 aren't you ?": outdated
deleted item "Some hardware is also known to cause problems.": outdated
blanked section "Motherboards with known problems". We should restart from scratch
deleted section "Motherboards with NO known problems": outdated
updated dual celeron section (numerous people)
added "SPARC sun4m SMP machines" to supported SMP sparc machines (Anton Blanchard)
added a "During boot machine hang signaling an IOAPIC problem" item in "Why it doesn't work on my machine?" section
added a "What about SMP performances?" item
updated "Why doesn't my old Compaq work?" item
fixed an outdated pointer
added a pointer to Ingo test SMP patches

v0.54, 13 march 1999

Added a section about SMP Alpha systems

v0.53, 08 march 1999

Added a section about SMP PowerPC systems

v0.52, 07 march 1999

Added a section about SMP Sparc systems

v0.51, 06 march 1999

Added a dual-celeron section
Deleted Adaptec section
Updated procps link
Updated xosview link
Added an answer for quad Xeon boot hang
Updated item about glibc patch for gd: should be included in RH 5.2

v0.50, 03 february 1999

Updated "Multithreaded programs on linux" link

v0.49, 13 january 1999

Update about CONFIG_SMP. Added .txt to Documentation/smp. (Michael Elizabeth Chastain)

v0.48, 10 december 1998

Mispelled corrected. Email address corrected.

v0.47, 20 november 1998

Added that 2.0.36 as the MTRR patch (related to the BogoMips problem)

v0.46, 10 november 1998

Update about Epox KP6-LS motherboards

v0.45, 25 october 1998

Corrected an error regarding /proc/stat file
Added a pointer to CESDIS Ethernet Linux Drivers site

v0.44, 14 october 1998

Updated the link to the web page: Motherboards rumored to run Linux SMP
Added Jakob explanation how to time SMP systems with 2.0 kernels

v0.43, 9 september 1998

Updated first question in section 3.1
Updated mt-Mesa link: multi-threaded is now included as experimental in the Mesa distribution

v0.42, 2 september 1998

Minor cosmetic update in sect 3.3
Two links (multithreaded Mesa and SMP performance) marked outdated
Updated the item about threads and exceptions in C++ (sect 3.3)

v0.41, 1 september 1998

Added a major section: "3.3 SMP Programming" written by Jakob �stergaard
moved some item of section "3.2 User side" in sect 3.3

v0.40, 27 august 1998

Updated section 3.1, item 7: processor affinity

v0.39, 27 august 1998

Updated needed Award BIOS version for Tyan motherboards (hASCII)
Added an item on IRQ in the crash section (me and hASCII)
Added good support of Asus P2B-DS (Ulf Rompe)
Added another smp-list archive in pointer section (Hank Leininger)

v0.38, 8 august 1998

Added a pointer to the Linux Threads FAQ

v0.37, 30 July 1998

Emil Briggs is working on parallel plugins for Gimp (see "Is there any threaded programs or library?", sect. "User side")

v0.36, 26 July 1998

Thanks to Jakob �stergaard, two changes in "Possible causes of Crash"
- Changed 2.0.33 to 2.0.35 (latest stable)
- Added a "BIOS related causes of failure"

v0.35, 14 July 1998

Added N440BX Server Board in Motherboards with NO problems
Added a succes story for GigaByte motherboard with BIOS upgrade
Added a "How to obtain maximum performance ?" section (waiting for your contributions ;)

v0.34, 10 june 1998

Added a "Parallelizing/Optimizing Compilers for 586/686 machines" section in section "Useful Pointers", thanks to Sumit Roy
Corrected a mispelling, "Asus P/I-UP5" is in fact "Asus P/I-P65UP5"

v0.33, 3 june 1998

Yet another success story for a GigaByte DLX Motherboard.
A tip for Tyan motherboards, disable the "DRAM Fast Leadoff" BIOS option

v0.32, 27 may 1998

Asus P/I-UP5 added in the motherboard-with-NO-problem section

v0.31, 18 may 1998

Elitegroup P6LX2-A works with 2.1.100 and 101
Bugs should be reported to linux-smp at vger.rutgers.edu

v0.30, 12 may 1998

SuperMicro is now in the motherboard-with-NO-problem section

v0.29, 11 may 1998

A success story for a GigaByte 686 motherboard with 2.1.101
Added a new item in the "User Side" section: "Is there any threaded programs or library?"
OpenGL Mesa library is beeing multithreaded. Cool! See the new section for details.

v0.28, 09 may 1998