This document provides a guide for developers writing applications and device drivers exploiting the symmetrical multiprocessing capabilities of OS/2 Warp Server Version 4 Advanced.
The purpose of this reference is to give information about functions, constants, and data structures. It provides information about the functions which enable the user to call functions in the C programming language.
OS/2 Warp Server for SMP was developed to satisfy the need to run OS/2 on multiprocessor based CISC processors, namely the Intel x86 compatible family. The requirements for OS/2 Warp Server for SMP were that it run all existing applications, device drivers and subsystems, as well as take advantage of new multiprocessor (MP) exploitive applications and device drivers.
The emergence of low-cost MP hardware based on the 486, Pentium, and Pentium Pro processors makes OS/2 Warp Server for SMP an attractive desktop operating environment. Server and workstation environments using the x86 architecture are moving toward the more powerful emerging RISC based chip sets. These new RISC processors lack the full range of programming tools available for the x86 chip set. OS/2 Warp Server for SMP attempts to solve the problems of insufficient processor bandwidth by supporting multiple x86 processors in a single computer.
To provide increased performance, OS/2 Warp Server for SMP allows applications, file system, mass storage and network drivers to execute on any processor at any time. A number of databases and applications have been modified to take advantage of the additional features provided by OS/2 Warp Server for SMP. DB2/2 and CICS are two databases that IBM has modified to run better under OS/2 Warp Server for SMP. These application can benefit greatly from OS/2 Warp Server for SMP because they are CPU-intensive. Other applications which can also benefit from OS/2 Warp Server for SMP are: