I've not looked at Bill's i386-mp branch since I don't have the
   hardware, but I've been assuming that when that gets merged in, would
   be a good time to start actually trying to debug some of this on the
   sparc.  


bill's i386-mp branch is unrelated to sparc MP work.  this bug is because
the sparc port needs work and this work can happen anytime.


.mrg.