normal and smp kernel

[Jonathan Berry]

On 5/18/05, Endymion <endy at digitalgrotto.net> wrote:
> Fred Morcos wrote:
> >On 5/19/05, Sam Varshavchik <mrsam at courier-mta.com> wrote:
> >>Fred Morcos writes:
> >>>actually i only have 1 processor, ill download the normal kernel rpm..
> >>>thanks :)
> >>>
> >>A Pentium-4 CPU with hyperthreading counts as two processors, and requires
> >>the smp kernel to enable hyperthreading.
> >>
> >i see, i checked for hyperthreading using a tool from the intel site
> >and its not support by my processor.. thanks guys :)
> >
> What about amd64 processors with HyperTransport? Do those count as
> smp's? And is there anything else that needs to be done to fully utilize
> HT under linux or is a purely hardware thing?
> -Endy

HyperTransport is something entirely different.  Unfortunately for end
users, they both have the same initials: HT.  HyperTransport is a new
bus arrangement between the processor and other peripherals, such as
memory, so it is sometimes referred to as the FSB (Front Side Bus)
although that term doesn't really apply anymore.
Yes, HyperTransport is a hardware thing, it allows to CPU to talk to
different devices in the system.  It should be completely transparent
to software.
The dual-core Opterons/Athlon 64s will use the smp kernel.  You get
two (real!) processors on one core, not just the appearance of two
processors like with HyperThreading.

Jonathan