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authorBen Dooks <ben-linux@fluff.org>2008-07-15 20:19:14 +0100
committerBen Dooks <ben-linux@fluff.org>2008-07-15 20:19:14 +0100
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parentb9d2252c1e44fa83a4e65fdc9eb93db6297c55af (diff)
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Merge branch 'master' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6 into for-rmk
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+Firmware support for CPU hotplug under Linux/x86-64
+---------------------------------------------------
+
+Linux/x86-64 supports CPU hotplug now. For various reasons Linux wants to
+know in advance of boot time the maximum number of CPUs that could be plugged
+into the system. ACPI 3.0 currently has no official way to supply
+this information from the firmware to the operating system.
+
+In ACPI each CPU needs an LAPIC object in the MADT table (5.2.11.5 in the
+ACPI 3.0 specification). ACPI already has the concept of disabled LAPIC
+objects by setting the Enabled bit in the LAPIC object to zero.
+
+For CPU hotplug Linux/x86-64 expects now that any possible future hotpluggable
+CPU is already available in the MADT. If the CPU is not available yet
+it should have its LAPIC Enabled bit set to 0. Linux will use the number
+of disabled LAPICs to compute the maximum number of future CPUs.
+
+In the worst case the user can overwrite this choice using a command line
+option (additional_cpus=...), but it is recommended to supply the correct
+number (or a reasonable approximation of it, with erring towards more not less)
+in the MADT to avoid manual configuration.