Local APIC(?)+PIII mobile

Hi all

I have an Asus S8600.
Mobile PIII 800Mhz + 192M RAM.
If i select "Local APIC support on uniprocessors" the kernel while booting
says there's no APIC present.Why?
I know the same problem with some other laptops.
Others detect it.

At home my Athlon Tunderbird + Asus A7V133-C with local APIC enabled detects
it but doesn seem to use it ...

cat /proc/interrupts
CPU0

  0:     375529          XT-PIC  timer
  1:       7452          XT-PIC  keyboard
  2:          0          XT-PIC  cascade
  5:     113246          XT-PIC  bttv, eth0
  8:          2          XT-PIC  rtc
 10:     144373          XT-PIC  EMU10K1
 11:     382444          XT-PIC  nvidia
 12:     153864          XT-PIC  PS/2 Mouse
 14:      12346          XT-PIC  ide0
 15:         12          XT-PIC  ide1
NMI:          0
ERR:          0

Anyway why do I need local APIC :) ?What are the advantages?Links?

Thank you very much for your kindness

Best Regards,

João Seabra

Because there isn't one present 8)

The APIC although on processor isnt present in all processors - at least not all older ones. Its not a required CPU feature so not every processor vendor includes it on all their processors.

Alan

the intel 440mx chipset that the asus is based on doesn't include an apic. an apic is for doing multiprocessor interupt managemnet. across multiple I/O subsystem each can have it own set of interupts...

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