From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Date: Mon, 8 Mar 1999 12:17:36 +1100 Message-Id: <199903080117.MAA05033@tango.anu.edu.au> From: Paul Mackerras To: David.Mentre@irisa.fr CC: linuxppc-dev@lists.linuxppc.org In-reply-to: (David.Mentre@irisa.fr) Subject: Re: [Linux SMP FAQ] Info request for SMP PPC systems Linux support Reply-to: Paul.Mackerras@cs.anu.edu.au References: Sender: owner-linuxppc-dev@lists.linuxppc.org List-Id: David Mentr\\'e wrote: > I'm the maintainer of the Linux SMP FAQ (see pointer below if you want > to have a look). Right know, this FAQ is very x86 centric but I plan to > change that. Looking at linuxppc.org, it seems that : > > - support is beeing developed (by lead programmer Cort Dougan )for > PowerSurge boards. This includes the UMAX s900. Cort did the initial work to put in the SMP support, I've hacked on it a bit too to get it working on my SMP powermac (a powermac 7600 upgraded with a dual-processor CPU card). BTW, "lead programmer" is Cort's designation for himself. As the person who did most of the powermac port and is primarily responsible for its maintenance, that seems a little grandiose to me. Not that I want to detract from Cort's enormous contribution, particularly in the area of Linux for PReP and embedded systems. > 2. is there any specific things to do to make a PPC SMP system? > (kernel compilation, boot, etc.) Booting is the same as UP. To compile a kernel, you have to select CONFIG_SMP and `make clean', then make vmlinux. If you want to be able to boot either an SMP or UP kernel, you have to have a separate set of modules for each. I do this by having /lib/modules/2.2.2-UP and /lib/modules/2.2.2-SMP (for example) and the startup scripts make /lib/modules/2.2.2 a symlink to one or the other, depending on which kernel I have booted. > 3. is there a mailing-list I should subscribe to to have further info > on this subject (i.e. SMP && PPC && Linux)? There isn't any specific mailing list for SMP Linux/PPC, partly because SMP PPC systems are rare - only the highest-end powermacs were SMP, and there aren't any SMP powermacs being made by Apple at present AFAIK. There are PPC-based RS/6000 machines which are SMP but AFAIK they are not supported by Linux/PPC currently. > 4. any bench result of SMP system? What would you like? I could try an lmbench run. It won't give terribly impressive numbers on my SMP machine, though, since it's a >3 year old motherboard with a relatively slow memory system. (In fact my iMac running Linux/PPC can compile a kernel faster than my SMP box. :-) Paul. [[ This message was sent via the linuxppc-dev mailing list. Replies are ]] [[ not forced back to the list, so be sure to Cc linuxppc-dev if your ]] [[ reply is of general interest. Please check http://lists.linuxppc.org/ ]] [[ and http://www.linuxppc.org/ for useful information before posting. ]]