Subject: RE: PowerPC + SMP

From: Benjamin Herrenschmidt <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2005 08:27:29 +1000

On Tue, 2005-04-26 at 09:54 -0500, Stuart Yoder wrote:
> Thanks Ben.
> 
> That raises a question though-- how can I know what assumptions the
> kernel makes about the state of the CPU/system when it begins execution?
> Is this clearly documented anywhere?
> 
> I am using U-boot on my SMP system and U-boot is not SMP aware.  Do you
> know of other open source bootloaders for Linux that would set up the
> CPUs as the kernel expects.

No, it's up to you to configure the CPU properly. I'm surprised that
uBoot doesn't set it up properly though, but then, when you bringup a
board, you rarely use a bootloader like that "as-is" :)

In general, the kernel except the CPU to be in working condition, which
I consider meanings having necessary HID bits set for proper coherency
etc... on an SMP system :)

Ben.