[coyotos-dev] SMP Terminology (was: Re[2]: Coyotos SMP?)

[Jonathan S. Shapiro]

On Thu, 2007-10-25 at 02:03 +0200, Valerio Bellizzomi wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> What is the exact meaning of BSP and AP ?


BSP  == Board Support Package.  On embedded systems, you typically have
many boards which may have different low level hardware. In particular,
the memory controller may differ from one board to the next.

For these environments, you don't tend to build a kernel to fit an
architecture. You build it to fit a particular board.


BSP == Bootstrap Processor. This is the processor that is elected
shortly after power-on to run the BIOS.  This processor becomes CPU0 in
Coyotos (and most other OS's). It is therefore the one that initializes
the operating system.

AP = application processor.  This is Intel-speak. Any processor that did
not win the BSP election is an AP. These are the second and subsequent
processors.


I will generally use the term "cpu0" when I mean the bootstrap
processor. When I use the term BSP, I'll be referring to the board
support package.


Have a look at section 7.5.1 of the IA-32 Software Developer's Manual,
Vol 3.


shap