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   ooglegroups.com> 2ab70efa   
   From: "Dariusz Piatkowski"    
      
   On Wed, 10 Aug 2011 14:51:07 UTC, Jonathan de Boyne Pollard    
    wrote:   
      
   > > maybe he can successfully shed some more light on this subject.   
   >    
   > Here are some more basics, just so that we're all on the same page:   
      
      
   ...snip...snip...a ton of absolutely WEALTHY WONDERFUL info...thank you!!!   
      
      
   > * An OS/2 Platform-Specific Driver (PSD) is not a Windows NT Hardware    
   > Abstraction Layer (HAL).  A HAL abstracts away quite a lot of the    
   > details of interrupt processing and low-level inter-processor    
   > synchronization and communication.  A PSD does not.  There are two    
   > particulars of note.  First: The OS/2 kernel has fallback code that    
   > knows how to talk to dual 8259s, should a PSD not implement certain    
   > optional capabilities, and operate what is essentially an *asymmetric*    
   > multiprocessor system.  Second: An OS/2 PSD has no responsibility for    
   > implementing spinlocks.  So a system where the PSD omits the optional    
   > features does not devolve to being identical to a uniprocessor OS/2 system.   
   >    
   > * The idea that I/O APICs increase the number of available interrupts is    
   > a bit of a swizz.  The number of PIRQ signal lines on the PCI bus    
   > doesn't magically change.  Some internal devices, built in to the    
      
      
   OK...so are there any tools currently in existence on our platform that we   
   could   
   use to really understand the 'setup' that our BIOS has attempted to implement?   
      
   I found this interesting IOAPIC note    
   (http://www.o3one.org/tutorials/apicarticle.txt), it explains the   
   functionality    
   in accessible terms.   
      
   Now, a question on my part as I've been trying to understand the options for   
   the   
   OS2APIC.PSD driver...what exactly do the following mean (as best as you can    
   estimate):   
      
   /apic   
   /pic   
   /nmi   
   /prec   
   ...and directly from a reference post:   
      
   There are three (3) possible entries that can describe a route:   
   route to the I/O APIC   
   route to the Local APIC   
   route described by argument(s) to the PSD    
      
   For a typical single user, multi core system, what are the possible    
   'combinations' of these options to use/try? I understand that this depends    
   heavily on the hardware itself, but is there an overall direction one should   
   be    
   trying to pursue while setting up the system?   
      
   Thanks again!   
      
   --- Internet Rex 2.31   
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