summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/Documentation/x86/x86_64/cpu-hotplug-spec
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorAnton Vorontsov <cbouatmailru@gmail.com>2008-07-30 02:05:23 +0400
committerAnton Vorontsov <cbouatmailru@gmail.com>2008-07-30 02:05:23 +0400
commit9fec6060d9e48ed7db0dac0e16d0f0f0e615b7f6 (patch)
tree74b41f31a08f6500ff3dfcf64ba21e2d9a8e87e5 /Documentation/x86/x86_64/cpu-hotplug-spec
parentfece418418f51e92dd7e67e17c5e3fe5a28d3279 (diff)
parent6e86841d05f371b5b9b86ce76c02aaee83352298 (diff)
Merge branch 'master' of /home/cbou/linux-2.6
Conflicts: drivers/power/Kconfig drivers/power/Makefile
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/x86/x86_64/cpu-hotplug-spec')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/x86/x86_64/cpu-hotplug-spec21
1 files changed, 21 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/x86/x86_64/cpu-hotplug-spec b/Documentation/x86/x86_64/cpu-hotplug-spec
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..3c23e0587db
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/x86/x86_64/cpu-hotplug-spec
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+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.