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Date: Thu, 10 Apr 1997 15:43:45 +0100 (BST)
From: Stephen Roome <steve@visint.co.uk>
To: Chuck Robey <chuckr@glue.umd.edu>
cc: Dave Alderman <dave@persprog.com>, hardware@FreeBSD.org
Subject: Re: Pentuim or Pentuim Pro ?
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On Mon, 7 Apr 1997, Chuck Robey wrote:

> On Mon, 7 Apr 1997, Dave Alderman wrote:
> 
> > Stephen Roome wrote:
> > > 
> > 
> > > I've just talked to a friend here though who reminded be about
> > > the AMD K6, that will (apparently) be socket 7 (pentium board compatible).
> > > So... Is it worth going for a pentium board especially if the K6 is going
> > > to be all it's hyped up to be or not ? (assuming it comes out soon)
> > > 
> > 
> > The AMD K6 was released on April 2.  You can order it now (at least in
> > the 200 Mhz version).  I know of one chip dealer that is offering it
> > now.  
> > 
> > Does anyone know if this CPU has multiprocessor support?
> 
> Not for FreeBSD.  The basic interprocessor communications is done by the
> APIC hardware, of which there are two flavors: Intel's patented APIC
> design, and everyone else's OpenApic.  Only trouble is, all the existing
> motherboards, and FreeBSD's software, support Intel's APIC design, not
> OpenApic.  I'm not aware that there's any support in any OS for OpenApic,
> or in any motherboard that's available.


So, basically that nothing is going to be multiprocessor 
unless either.
	1) Someone rewrites/patches/whatever each OS with OpenApic support.
	2) It's an Intel chip ?

If so, this is as bad news as Socket-1 for the market.. (is there an 
International Monopolies/Mergers commition to stop Intel putting everyone 
else out of the market ?)