[TriLUG] Suse 10 and Intel 82801

[David W. Aquilina]

On Sun, Dec 18, 2005 at 07:38:33PM -0500, Alan Porter wrote:
> Dean Price wrote:
> 
> >"D" Intel's Dual-Core Proc's, I don't have a problem with reboots.. in 
> >fact it is a solid box... Windows and 64bit Linux works awsome... I 
> >would just rather have the 32 bit OS for video reasons.. Ie wmv's do 
> >not play with out the win32 codec that do not work on 64bit..

For "Pentium D"s yes, they're dual core. However, Intel also offers a "Celeron D" processor, which is not dual core. 

> Sorry, I not trying to hijack your thread, but I am still confused.
> 
> It has two processor cores, so I assume you'd want to run an SMP kernel.

correct

> 
> What's this about running 64-bit Linux?  Surely, just because it'll do 2 
> x 32, that does not mean it'll also do 1 x 64.  ???
 
I believe almost all of Intel's new chips have their 64-bit extensions, called EM64T. This is where the 64-bit stuff is coming from. Both processor cores will have the 64 bit extensions. 

If you look at /proc/cpuinfo on a running system, the presence of the 'lm' flag indicates a chip (both Intel and AMD) has 64-bit extensions. For example, from my Sempron64 system: 

processor       : 0
vendor_id       : AuthenticAMD
cpu family      : 15
model           : 44
model name      : AMD Hammer Family processor - Model Unknown
stepping        : 2
cpu MHz         : 1607.987
cache size      : 256 KB
fdiv_bug        : no
hlt_bug         : no
f00f_bug        : no
coma_bug        : no
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 1
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt lm 3dnowext 3dnow pni
bogomips        : 3219.18

-- 
David W. Aquilina
david at starkindler.us