> I have os/2 Warp 3.0... What's this about multiple processors ? How would
> one go about it? Special hardware, or is there some kinda VLB card out there
> with another cpu on it ? I would be especially interested in doing this...
> Or when I upgrade, upgrading to a platform with multiple processors.
>         Please advise... and what does the 'SMP' in os/2 smp mean ?

1) SMP stands for Symmetrical Multi-Processor.  That's the version of OS/2
designed to use multiple CPU's.  (There are actually several versions, I
think there's a 2 CPU version, a 4 CPU version, an 8 CPU version, and a 16
CPU version.)

2) You have to buy a multi-CPU motherboard.  They're available from several
places, but they're still fairly expensive.  (Until OS/2 SMP came out, the
only operating system out there other than unix that could run on them was
Windows NT, so you can tell how great the demand was for them, which is why
you've never heard of them.)

Basically, you get an SMP motherboard, install a copy of warp SMP that can
handle however many CPU's you have on the thing, and boot it up.  That's
it.  The software's exactly the same.  (Multi-threaded apps automatically
delegate different threads to different processors.)

It's really nice.  I'm not sure if warp SMP is out yet (I think it is, but
haven't confirmed it.)  I know that OS/2 2.1 SMP has been selling for close
to a year...

It's probably the future of programming.  But it's still a couple of years
off yet.  The fact that OS/2 can do it today doesn't make the hardware any
cheaper.

Rob
 
--- Xblat