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From: bzs@bu-cs.bu.EDU (Barry Shein)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Information on BSD 4.[23] on two/multiple processor systems
Message-ID: <8719@brl-adm.ARPA>
Date: Sat, 8-Aug-87 14:48:14 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-adm.8719
Posted: Sat Aug  8 14:48:14 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Aug-87 21:58:01 EDT
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Just some errata on the Encore info (we now have four of them):

>Encore Multimax: up to ten 32332 microprocessors, symmetric, choice of 4.2BSD
>or System VR3.

Up to 20 processors, the confusion probably arises from 10 boards max
each with 2 CPUs.

>The others are marketed as
>multiuser systems for a large user base (from 48 to 512 users), where the main
>purpose of the multiple processors is to support a large number of different
>tasks, as opposed to subdividing single large tasks. (I don't mean the sub-
>division of large tasks isn't possible, just that none of these are marketed
>that way.)

Not sure about the word "marketed" but the Encore (and I'm sure others)
has extensions to their Unix (some new syscalls) to support multiple
CPUs in a process. A lot of this derives from Mach's threads (which
also runs on the Encore.)

Standardizing programming interfaces to exploit parallel CPUs within
the context of Unix remains a frontier.

	-Barry Shein, Boston University