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MultiProcessor Specification 1.4
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& P# i1 ^+ i' l9 ]The MultiProcessor Specification, hereafter known as the “MP specification,” defines an
6 @0 a9 c) i( P" r3 O' L8 @( Oenhancement to the standard to which PC manufacturers design DOS-compatible systems.
. t v; y4 {' C1 cMP-capable operating systems will be able to run without special customization on multiprocessor
, z1 e0 u: C; M8 [$ M2 |; ksystems that comply with this specification. End users who purchase a compliant multiprocessor
. a% Y: M: L- H9 `% k5 z& e$ O0 zsystem will be able to run their choice of operating systems.$ M5 i( @ F, |# f) y
The MP specification covers PC/AT-compatible MP platform designs based on Intel processor' n8 y2 R8 n# \
architectures and Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (APIC) architectures. The term
b! z$ S. O) [1 s: b& r“PC/AT-compatible” here refers to the software-visible components of the PC/AT, not to hardware
I/ c( y8 Y* t. J6 J, V% Cfeatures, such as the bus implementation, that are not visible to software. An implementation of0 h5 w$ a) O# z
this specification may incorporate one or more industry standard buses, such as ISA, EISA, MCA,( A z+ w+ @: S4 ]
PCI, or other OEM-specific buses. |
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