What's New in the Developer's Toolkit for OS/2 Warp Version 3 SMP Update?

By Amy Conner

The Developer's Toolkit for OS/2 Warp Version 3 SMP Update allows you to take advantage of the symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) support in the OS/2 Warp Server Advanced Version 4 SMP Feature.

Before installing the Version 3 SMP Toolkit, you also should have installed the following in this order:
 * 1) IBM OS/2 Warp Server Advanced
 * 2) IBM OS/2 Warp Server Advanced Version 4 SMP Feature
 * 3) Developer's Toolkit for OS/2 Warp Version 3
 * 4) IBM OS/2 Warp Server Toolkit (optional)

The directory structure of the SMP update toolkit is: The Toolkit Update contains the following files:
 * README.SMP – the readme for the SMP update
 * New header files and library files:
 * \TOOLKIT\H\BSEDOS.H
 * \TOOLKIT\H\BSEMEMF.H
 * \TOOLKIT\INC\BSEMEMF.INC
 * \TOOLKIT\INC\DEVHLP.INC
 * \TOOLKIT\INC\BSEDOC.INC
 * \TOOLKIT\LIB\OS2286.LIB
 * \TOOLKIT\LIB\OS2386.LIB

SMP Programming Addendum
A new online reference, SMP Programming Addendum, serves as an introduction to symmetrical multiprocessing (SMP) and contains information targeted for SMP application and device driver developers. The file name of this online book is SMP.INF and it is located in the \TOOLKIT\BOOK subdirectory.

New Control Program Functions
Several new functions have been added to the OS/2 control program programming interface (the functions have a prefix of "Dos"). These functions are documented in the SMP Programming Addendum online book.

Marking SMP Application's File-Headers
The EXEHDR and MARKEXE utility programs have been updated to recognize the SMP bit settings. MARKEXE now includes an option, MPUNSAFE, to mark an executable with the multiprocessor (MP) unsafe bit.

New Debug Kernel Commands
All kernel debugger commands work as before, but a few have been modified to display or use multi-processor-specific information. In addition, several new multi-processor-specific commands have been added.

A list of new and changed commands follows:
 * The .DP (processor status) command has been added. This command dumps out a processor control block verbosely.
 * The .DL (display processor spinlocks) command has been added. This command displays all the spinlocks owned by a particular processor.
 * The R and the .R (register commands) have been modified to indicate on which processor the currently selected slot is running.
 * The .SS (change current slot) has been modified to change which PSA (processor save area) you are currently looking at.

These commands are documented in the SMP Programming Addendum (SMP.INF).


 * Note: The kernel debug diskettes shipped with OS/2 Warp Version 3 will not work with OS/2 for SMP. Instead, you will need to use the kernel debug files for OS/2 for SMP located on the OS/2 for SMP CD-ROM.

Your feedback on the toolkits is appreciated. If you have comments about the Developer's Toolkit for OS/2 Warp Version 3 SMP Update, you can reach us by returning the toolkit survey or through the Developer Connection Support channels. And happy programming--whatever your processing environment.