10. What's new ?

v1.14, 9 july 2002

• First release since in almost two years
• Added article Multiprocessor Specification Support (Randy Dunlap)
• Added explanation of "unexpected IO-APIC" problem
• Added a note on changes between 2.2.x and 2.4.x kernels
• Added new section update on SPARC (Lionel, trollhunter Bouchpan-Lerust-Juery)
• Added various questions and answers
• Deleted "SMP specific limit with current kernel (2.2)": outdated
• Changed word "current" from kernel 2.2 documents

v1.12.1, 25 october 2000

• Put all authors in Bryant, Hartner, Qi and Venkitachalam paper

v1.12, 22 october 2000

• Explanation on why not trust Xosview on scheduling (Rik van Riel)
• A pointer to an article that compares 2.2 and 2.4 kernels (Ray Bryant)

v1.11, 8 october 2000

• Linux boots on a Sun E1000 with 24 CPUs
• Linux boots on a AlphaServer with 31 CPUs

v1.10, 5 october 2000

• New linux-smp mailing-list adress : [email protected] (me)
• Tell where to find RTC setting in kernel config (Patrick Doyle)
• glossary updated and concepts added (from a french version made by Ludovic Danigo)
• Fixed an inconsistency (Matthias Schniedermeyer)
• Deleted wrong links (Johan Ekenberg)

v1.9.1, 28 september 2000

• updated with a submission from Stig Telfer detailing SMP support on API Alpha systems

v1.9, 13 january 2000

• Remember to disable all BIOS power-save features (Osamu Aoki)
• Explain how to access to Compaq server into advanced configuration mode (Adrian Portelli)

v1.8, 8 november 1999

• quad-celeron motherboard was a hoax, restored old paragraph (Simen Timian Thoresen)

v1.7, 6 november 1999

• new introduction (C. Polisher aka cp)
• numerous typo and grammatical fixes (cp)
• introductory paragraph on kernel compilation (cp)
• introductory paragraph on SMP need (cp)
• reference on KAI optimizing compiler (Gero Wedemann)
• quad-celeron motherboard exists (Jeffrey H. Ingber)

v1.6, 21 october 1999

• added information on xosview scheduling perturbation
• added "APIC error interrupt on CPU#n" message information
• added information on hard lockup
• deleted section "How to optain maximum performance" (was obsolete)
• added info on dual systems with different x86 procs (a Celeron and a P-II)

v1.5, 4 october 1999

• more precision in PSET description

v1.4, 30 september 1999

• precize to enable MTRR support for an x86 SMP kernel (me)

v1.3, 29 september 1999

• many many grammar and typographical fixes (Wade Hampton aka hww)
• added info in short introduction related to 2.2/2.4/2.0 diffs (hww)
• added step by step things to do to recompile a kernel (hww and me)
• added info related to SMP/UP modules problems (hww)
• added precision in Posix Threads section related to user (hww) vs. kernel threads (hww)
• new item about NFS and kernel lock (hww)
• new item about kernel lock without message (hww)
• new item about debugging lockup problems (hww)
• added info about heating problems (hww)
• miscellaneous updates I've forget about (hww)
• new item about floppy access and sound (hww)

v1.2, 27 september 1999

• name change: this document is now a HOWTO. TWD, and fast! (Guylhem Aznar)

v1.1, 26 september 1999

• added a link to first Chris Pirih FAQ draft
• expanted an IRQ related problems

v1.00, 25 september 1999

• first upgrade in a long long time!
• reprocessed the whole FAQ: 2.2 is here and 2.4 soon
• added kernel locking information from Ingo Molnar
• deleted item "How will my application perform under SMP?": outdated
• deleted item "My SMP system is locking up all the time.": outdated
• deleted item "You are running 2.0.35 aren't you ?": outdated
• deleted item "Some hardware is also known to cause problems.": outdated
• blanked section "Motherboards with known problems". We should restart from scratch
• deleted section "Motherboards with NO known problems": outdated
• updated dual celeron section (numerous people)
• added "SPARC sun4m SMP machines" to supported SMP sparc machines (Anton Blanchard)
• added a "During boot machine hang signaling an IOAPIC problem" item in "Why it doesn't work on my machine?" section
• added a "What about SMP performances?" item
• updated "Why doesn't my old Compaq work?" item
• fixed an outdated pointer
• added a pointer to Ingo test SMP patches

v0.54, 13 march 1999

• Added a section about SMP Alpha systems

v0.53, 08 march 1999

• Added a section about SMP PowerPC systems

v0.52, 07 march 1999

• Added a section about SMP Sparc systems

v0.51, 06 march 1999

• Added a dual-celeron section
• Deleted Adaptec section
• Updated procps link
• Updated xosview link
• Added an answer for quad Xeon boot hang
• Updated item about glibc patch for gd: should be included in RH 5.2

v0.50, 03 february 1999

• Updated "Multithreaded programs on linux" link

v0.49, 13 january 1999

• Update about CONFIG_SMP. Added .txt to Documentation/smp. (Michael Elizabeth Chastain)

v0.48, 10 december 1998

• Mispelled corrected. Email address corrected.

v0.47, 20 november 1998

• Added that 2.0.36 as the MTRR patch (related to the BogoMips problem)

v0.46, 10 november 1998

• Update about Epox KP6-LS motherboards

v0.45, 25 october 1998

• Corrected an error regarding /proc/stat file
• Added a pointer to CESDIS Ethernet Linux Drivers site

v0.44, 14 october 1998

• Updated the link to the web page: Motherboards rumored to run Linux SMP
• Added Jakob explanation how to time SMP systems with 2.0 kernels

v0.43, 9 september 1998

• Updated first question in section 3.1
• Updated mt-Mesa link: multi-threaded is now included as experimental in the Mesa distribution

v0.42, 2 september 1998

• Minor cosmetic update in sect 3.3
• Two links (multithreaded Mesa and SMP performance) marked outdated
• Updated the item about threads and exceptions in C++ (sect 3.3)

v0.41, 1 september 1998

• Added a major section: "3.3 SMP Programming" written by Jakob �stergaard
• moved some item of section "3.2 User side" in sect 3.3

v0.40, 27 august 1998

• Updated section 3.1, item 7: processor affinity

v0.39, 27 august 1998

• Updated needed Award BIOS version for Tyan motherboards (hASCII)
• Added an item on IRQ in the crash section (me and hASCII)
• Added good support of Asus P2B-DS (Ulf Rompe)
• Added another smp-list archive in pointer section (Hank Leininger)

v0.38, 8 august 1998

• Added a pointer to the Linux Threads FAQ

v0.37, 30 July 1998

• Emil Briggs is working on parallel plugins for Gimp (see "Is there any threaded programs or library?", sect. "User side")

v0.36, 26 July 1998

• Thanks to Jakob �stergaard, two changes in "Possible causes of Crash"
  • Changed 2.0.33 to 2.0.35 (latest stable)
  • Added a "BIOS related causes of failure"

v0.35, 14 July 1998

• Added N440BX Server Board in Motherboards with NO problems
• Added a succes story for GigaByte motherboard with BIOS upgrade
• Added a "How to obtain maximum performance ?" section (waiting for your contributions ;)

v0.34, 10 june 1998

• Added a "Parallelizing/Optimizing Compilers for 586/686 machines" section in section "Useful Pointers", thanks to Sumit Roy
• Corrected a mispelling, "Asus P/I-UP5" is in fact "Asus P/I-P65UP5"

v0.33, 3 june 1998

• Yet another success story for a GigaByte DLX Motherboard.
• A tip for Tyan motherboards, disable the "DRAM Fast Leadoff" BIOS option

v0.32, 27 may 1998

• Asus P/I-UP5 added in the motherboard-with-NO-problem section

v0.31, 18 may 1998

• Elitegroup P6LX2-A works with 2.1.100 and 101
• Bugs should be reported to [email protected]

v0.30, 12 may 1998

• SuperMicro is now in the motherboard-with-NO-problem section

v0.29, 11 may 1998

• A success story for a GigaByte 686 motherboard with 2.1.101
• Added a new item in the "User Side" section: "Is there any threaded programs or library?"
• OpenGL Mesa library is beeing multithreaded. Cool! See the new section for details.

v0.28, 09 may 1998

• A US mirror of this FAQ is now available (see Introduction)
• Merge of the two confusing Gigabyte 686 entries

v0.27, 05 may 1998

• New info for the Adaptec and TekRam drivers
• Micronics W6-LI motherboard works under SMP