Question Concerning Dual Proc. Systems.......

[ToBeMe]

OK, a friend and I are discussing dual CPU systems. He says that no Win9X O/S's can be run in these systems......I say that Win9X CAN be used....it just has no support........which is it you "Gurus"?????

 

[hominid skull]

You can run win98/me but it will only use one cpu..

 

[ToBeMe]

EXACTLY! & no SMP correct?

 

[hominid skull]

Yes, no SMP, the other CPU will not even be recognised by the OS and therefore not used.

 

[Ulfwald]

so far the only OSs that support SMP are (that I am fully aware of) Linux, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000. Win 9x code is not written with SMP included.

 

[ToBeMe]

But......to get this clear for my friend here......WIN9X WILL RUN WHILE YOU HAVE 2 CPU'S IN PLACE ON THE MOBO CORRECT? (someone give me a big "hell ya'" for a $50.00 bet!)

 

[hominid skull]

Hell Yeah, WIN9X WILL RUN WHILE YOU HAVE 2 CPU'S IN PLACE ON THE MOBO, but you will only get the use of one cpu as win9x will not 'see' the other cpu - and not use it.

 

[CTho9305]

is it possible to write software that would run under 9x and use the 2nd CPU, or would windows complain about illegal op's / GPF's?

 

No, you cannot access the second CPU, period.

 

[bubba]

Well it is more likely fair to say Win9X will not run an SMP system. It will run on a dual processor board however (heck, I have done it), but will have absolutely no idea about the 2nd processor. That 2nd processor will just be a case heater!

 

[syf3r]

ulfwald:

you left out BeOS in that list..

BeOS can utilize currently (i think) up to 16 processors, and in a dual-proc system will only waste 2-4% of the second processor, while an OS like windows NT will use-up 20% of the second processor just to manage the second processor... that's why under microsoft OS's a dual-600MHz machine won't give you the equivalent of a 1200MHz machine, but more like ~1000MHz...

-syf3r.

 

[JesseKnows]

It is Possible to write a device driver which would communicate between processors. Look on Intel's web site for the multiprocessing spec (I learned it a few years ago). I am not aware of anyone who had done it.