Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2001 22:05:36 -0400 From: "Andrew C. Hornback" <hornback@wireco.net> To: <tlambert2@mindspring.com> Cc: <questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: Athlon MP / AMD 760MP Chipset (Athlon SMP question) Message-ID: <002401c109ad$f9fbb760$0e00000a@tomcat> In-Reply-To: <3B4B21B3.26B76804@mindspring.com>
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> -----Original Message----- > From: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG > [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG]On Behalf Of Terry Lambert > Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2001 11:40 AM > To: nathan@vidican.com > Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG; hackers@FreeBSD.ORG > Subject: Re: Athlon MP / AMD 760MP Chipset (Athlon SMP question) > > Instead, AMD implemented the Intel APIC specification; > I'm not sure if they did it by licensing the patent > (Intel had a patent on the APIC design), or if it's > just been long enough for it to come off patent (I > seem to remember the external 386 APIC chips were out > in 1984 or a little after that, which would put them > after the 1998 date for 14 years from date of issue > for the patents on them). Uhh... WHAT? The last I heard, the Athlon was using EV6-like electronics. These are what the sad-fated Alpha uses, and might have some Intel in them (the whole Alpha thing has been so convoluted, my dog probably owns rights to part of the chip...) but I doubt that this the 760MP uses anything that Intel would have the full rights to. If they did, wouldn't that mean that AMD just played into their hand? I think the US Department of Justice would have something to say about that. At any rate, I just downloaded the user's manual for the 760MP. There's nothing in there really about the chips used to make the SMP work on the board. Now, this doesn't say that Intel is involved with it, but it doesn't come out and spell it out. This may even have become a moot point, now that Intel owns the rights to the Alpha, and presumably to the EV6 electronics package. Such is a sad day... Microsoft is no longer the enemy, they've shot themselves in the foot so many times a M*A*S*H unit couldn't fix some of their problems. Intel may be the next enemy on the horizon. --- Andy To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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