On Mon, Apr 21, 2003 at 10:22:44AM -0700, Jason Thorpe wrote:
> 
> On Monday, April 21, 2003, at 10:10  AM, David Maxwell wrote:
> 
> >Well, the software could have been allowed to configure the settings,
> >then the firmware could be in charge of operation. In that way, you
> >could get the best of both worlds.
> 
> Not really.  This is one of the reasons that APM is totally 
> incompatible with multiprocessor.  You basically have to let the OS 
> have control.

I don't understand that...

It would have been possible to design a firmware that controlled power
settings, and which interacted with more than one CPU. I don't
understand what the intractable problem with doing that ( at ACPI design
specification time, on the part of that standards designers) would have been.

Facing up to reality, and the fact that the power management (hardware) system
designers didn't allow for it, is another, practical matter for NetBSD
(and every other OS) to live with.

-- 
David Maxwell, david@vex.net|david@maxwell.net -->
Any sufficiently advanced Common Sense will seem like magic... 
					      - me