porting linux programs and drivers to plan9

[Eric Dorman eld@jewel.ucsd.edu]

>From jmk@plan9.bell-labs.com Thu Apr 17 22:00:08 1997 wrote:
> [edorman wrote:]
> 	>Q: Are Brazil (which apparently supports some Pentium multiprocessor 
> 	>boards) and Plan9 sufficiently similar that the Brazil MP stuff would 
> 	>be of use?  Is is possible to obtain some of the Brazil MP stuff?
> 
> Last October I wrote in 9fans:
> 
> 	The x86 multiprocessor code runs on Pentium or Pentium Pro systems which
> 	conform to the Intel Multiprocessor Specification, there were no changes
...

Doinks!; I thought I had scanned through all the past stuff!  Sorry! =:)

> Since then we've found one problem caused by the weak memory ordering of the Pentium
> Pro, there may be others lurking, time will tell. I can't think offhand of any reason
> the same changes couldn't be made to Plan9. It took about two weeks total to have
> full SMP implemented on the x86, Plan9 is 'SMP-friendly' and was designed with this
> is mind. Compare this to Linux where, after 2 years, the first tentative steps at
> allowing multiple processors to run kernel code simultaneously are just being made.

This certainly inspires some confidence!  Thanks.
[xx]

> --jim

Regards,

Eric Dorman
edorman@ucsd.edu