Intel SE7525GP2 Product Specification - Page 26

Multiple Processor Initialization - drivers

Page 26 highlights

Functional Architecture Intel® Server Boards SE7320SP2 and SE7525GP2 3.1.6.9 Hyper-Threading Technology Intel® Xeon® processors support Hyper-Threading Technology. The BIOS detects processors that support this feature and enables the feature during POST. The BIOS Setup utility provides an option to selectively enable or disable this feature. The default behavior is "enabled". The BIOS creates additional entries in the ACPI MP tables to describe the virtual processors. The SMBIOS Type 4 structure shows only the physical processors installed. It does not describe the virtual processors because some operating systems are not able to efficiently utilize the Hyper-Threading Technology. 3.1.6.10 Intel SpeedStep® Technology Intel® Xeon® processors support the Geyserville3 (GV3) feature of the Intel SpeedStep® Technology. This feature changes the processor operating ratio and voltage similar to the Thermal Monitor 2 (TM2) feature. It must be used in conjunction with the TM1 or TM2 feature. The BIOS implements the GV3 feature in conjunction with the TM2 feature. 3.1.6.11 Intel® Extended Memory 64 Technology (Intel® EM64T) Support The system BIOS supports the Intel® Extended Memory 64 technology (Intel® EM64T) feature of the Intel® Xeon® processors. There is no BIOS setup option to enable or disable this support. The system is in IA-32 compatibility mode when booting to an operating system. Operating system specific drivers are loaded to enable this capability. 3.1.6.12 Execute Disable Bit support The system BIOS supports the execute-disable (NX) bit in the latest Intel® Xeon® processors. This option can be enabled or disabled in the BIOS setup utility. It is disabled by default to allow users to opt-in to the protection this feature provides. 3.1.7 Multiple Processor Initialization IA-32 processors have a microcode-based boot strap processor (BSP) arbitration protocol. On reset, all of the processors compete to become the BSP. If a serious error is detected during a built-in self-test (BIST), that processor does not participate in the initialization protocol. A single processor that successfully passes BIST is automatically selected by the hardware as the BSP and starts executing from the reset vector (F000:FFF0h). A processor that does not perform the role of BSP is referred to as an application processor (AP). The BSP is responsible for executing the BIOS power-on self-test (POST) and preparing the machine to boot the operating system. At boot time, the system is in virtual wire mode and the BSP alone is programmed to accept local interrupts (INTR driven by programmable interrupt controller (PIC) and non-maskable interrupt (NMI)). As a part of the boot process, the BSP wakes each application processor (AP). When awakened, an AP programs its memory type range registers (MTRRs) to be identical to those of the BSP. All APs execute a halt instruction with their local interrupts disabled. If the BSP determines that an AP exists that is a lower-featured processor or that has a lower value returned by the CPUID function, the BSP switches to the lowest-featured processor in the system. 14 Revision 4.0

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Functional Architecture
Intel® Server Boards SE7320SP2 and SE7525GP2
Revision 4.0
14
3.1.6.9
Hyper-Threading Technology
Intel
®
Xeon
®
processors support Hyper-Threading Technology. The BIOS detects processors
that support this feature and enables the feature during POST. The BIOS Setup utility provides
an option to selectively enable or disable this feature. The default behavior is “enabled”.
The BIOS creates additional entries in the ACPI MP tables to describe the virtual processors.
The SMBIOS Type 4 structure shows only the physical processors installed. It does not
describe the virtual processors because some operating systems are not able to efficiently
utilize the Hyper-Threading Technology.
3.1.6.10
Intel SpeedStep
®
Technology
Intel
®
Xeon
®
processors support the Geyserville3 (GV3) feature of the Intel SpeedStep
®
Technology. This feature changes the processor operating ratio and voltage similar to the
Thermal Monitor 2 (TM2) feature. It must be used in conjunction with the TM1 or TM2 feature.
The BIOS implements the GV3 feature in conjunction with the TM2 feature.
3.1.6.11
Intel
®
Extended Memory 64 Technology (Intel
®
EM64T) Support
The system BIOS supports the Intel
®
Extended Memory 64 technology (Intel
®
EM64T) feature of
the Intel
®
Xeon
®
processors. There is no BIOS setup option to enable or disable this support.
The system is in IA-32 compatibility mode when booting to an operating system. Operating
system specific drivers are loaded to enable this capability.
3.1.6.12
Execute Disable Bit support
The system BIOS supports the execute-disable (NX) bit in the latest Intel
®
Xeon
®
processors.
This option can be enabled or disabled in the BIOS setup utility. It is disabled by default to allow
users to opt-in to the protection this feature provides.
3.1.7
Multiple Processor Initialization
IA-32 processors have a microcode-based boot strap processor (BSP) arbitration protocol. On
reset, all of the processors compete to become the BSP. If a serious error is detected during a
built-in self-test (BIST), that processor does not participate in the initialization protocol. A single
processor that successfully passes BIST is automatically selected by the hardware as the BSP
and starts executing from the reset vector (F000:FFF0h). A processor that does not perform the
role of BSP is referred to as an application processor (AP).
The BSP is responsible for executing the BIOS power-on self-test (POST) and preparing the
machine to boot the operating system. At boot time, the system is in virtual wire mode and the
BSP alone is programmed to accept local interrupts (INTR driven by programmable interrupt
controller (PIC) and non-maskable interrupt (NMI)).
As a part of the boot process, the BSP wakes each application processor (AP). When
awakened, an AP programs its memory type range registers (MTRRs) to be identical to those of
the BSP. All APs execute a halt instruction with their local interrupts disabled. If the BSP
determines that an AP exists that is a lower-featured processor or that has a lower value
returned by the CPUID function, the BSP switches to the lowest-featured processor in the
system.