Re: Prevalence of SMP Alpha systems & Linux?

[Greg Lindahl <lindahl cs virginia edu>]

> I understand it is possible to recompile the linux kernel to exploit SMP
> hardware - this is something I have explored with x86 systems.
> 
> Is this often done with Alpha systems?  Is it efficient and stable?  I
> recall at least one version of linux (compiled for SMP) still tied all I/O
> to a single processor.  Does RH 5.1 avoid this?

I didn't see anyone answer this in public, so:

1) As far as I know Jay and his new hire have not quite finished the
Alpha SMP stuff, so no, it isn't common. He hasn't mentioned it in
a long time. Maybe we should give Linus a MP machine ;-) ;-)

2) Linux SMP distributes the interrupts to all processors, according
to some postings I saw recently which were discussing changing that to
send them all to one. However, Linux SMP is closer to SunOS4 in its
multiprocessing capabilities than Solaris, for example.

-- g