On Thu, Jan 21, 1999 at 05:16:54PM -0600, Justin Bradford wrote:
> > 3. kernel is not multi processing in the sense that on multiprocessor
> > systems it will run on only one cpu at a time.
>
> This I don't believe. What would be the point of SMP support if it only
> used one processor at a time? So either they're looking at a kernel prior
> to SMP, or they have no idea what they're talking about. Or possibly, I've
> misunderstood the statement.
<Out of the back of my hat, here:>
In the original statement, the issue no.3 was that the /kernel/ would only
run on one CPU at a time. Which I guess is true in 2.0 with the kernel wide
spinlock. User mode code can run on the other CPUs, but generally only one
processor can be doing anything useful in kernel mode at any point in time.
Of course, a lot of this has gone away in 2.1/2.2 as I understand it.
The phrasing of the original statement is just slightly ambiguous.
--
There was a young man of St. John's
Who wanted to bugger the swans.
But the loyal hall porter
Said, "Pray take my daughter!
Those birds are reserved for the dons."
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/