Thunderbird/5.0   
   .pc.hardware.chips,comp.os.os2.misc   
   UTC)   
   .os2.setup.misc:593 comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips:1329 comp.os.os2.misc:3570   
   From: Jonathan de Boyne Pollard    
      
   > I've been trying to understand the options for the OS2APIC.PSD driver...   
      
   Don't go reading the copies of its documentation that exist on the WWW,    
   such as at the EDM/2 CONFIG.SYS Documentation Project for example.  They    
   all seem to have a single source, that was mis-transcribed from the    
   original documentation.  Where the WWW documents say   
      
    > The argument is "int" or "lint".   
      
   the original document actually said   
      
    > The argument is "int" or "lint".   
      
   which of course makes more sense when one reads what follows.   
      
   For a better description of OS2APIC.PSD's command-line arguments, see    
   IBM Technical Document #10322931.  It has the advantage of being more up    
   to date than OS/2 version 2.11, as well. (-:   
      
   > For a typical single user, multi core system, what are the possible   
   > 'combinations' of these options to use/try?   
      
   The main use of the /NMI, /PREC, and /PIC options is to compensate for    
   faulty MPS tables.  You've already seen that your firmware's SETUP    
   utility has the wrong help text attached to the "IOAPIC function"    
   option.  This is not the only way that a mainboard manufacturer can    
   stuff up building a firmware image.  A manufacturer can stuff up the MPS    
   tables, too.   
      
   It was common enough in years gone by that operating system vendors had    
   to implement workarounds like this.  DOS+Windows 9x users wouldn't    
   notice that MPS tables were wrong.  Not even most OS/2 users would.    
   Only a few people with Windows NT and other SMP operating systems would.    
     Now that operating systems that actually care about such things are    
   pretty much in the majority, the situation is somewhat different    
   (although the operating systems that care also tend to prefer ACPI    
   information to MPS).   
      
   Of course, if your MPS tables are *not* faulty, and correctly describe    
   how your system is wired up, you won't need to fiddle with these options    
   at all.   
      
   --- Internet Rex 2.31   
    * Origin: virginmedia.com (1:261/20.999)