What is SMP motherboard?

doris · 10-27-2005, 11:29 AM

I just upgraded my computer and installed Fedora Core 4. From the boot loader, I see two images: One is regular and another is with SMP. Redhat website said two boot up configurations would be created if the motherboard is SMP. Here are my questions:

What is SMP motherboard? What are its advantages/disadvantages?

fouldsy · 10-27-2005, 11:40 AM

SMP means symetric multi-processing - basically a machine with two or more processors, often dual processors. If you only have one processor, leave alone. Computers with more than one processor use different kernels options to take advantage of being able to handle more than one thread at a time.

doris · 10-27-2005, 12:50 PM

Thanks, I now understand the boot loader much clearer.

What about hyper-threading CPU? Does it require SMP to work at full efficiency? My computer has a single processor with hyper-threading capability.

oddmyth · 10-27-2005, 01:02 PM

Single procs w/ hyperthreading appear do use the SMP kernel, because hyperthreading allows a virtual processor to use threads in the same manner a multi-proc system would.