MacOS DP System Software - wth?

[olePigeon]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mac-OS-DP-System-Software-For-Second-Processor-/201634631565

Huh.  Never seen this CD before.  I'm guessing it shipped with the dual 604 systems?

 

[avadondragon]

Wow that's REALLY interesting!  Dual CPU support under Mac OS pre-X?  I wonder how it worked.

 

[Themk]

Yup Power Macintosh 9500 DP. It had dual 180MHz CPUs.

You are correct olePigeon, it did ship with those systems, or more specifically, the dual CPU card.

It probably worked by allowing two programs to run independently of each other, as the rest of the Mac OS was cooperative multitasking..

 

[olePigeon]

Any idea which version of the OS?   7.5 or 7.6?

 

[Themk]

Yes, 7.5.3 all the way through 9.1 according to LEM. The MP software might be 7.5 only though. Likely, in later system versions the MP software was bundled with the MacOS

 

[Themk]

Hmm, now I'm wondering if DP System Software was a special distribution of System 7.5.3... EDIT: it is, but it also includes the extra piece of software mentioned below

EDIT: I was looking around at the Apple System Recovery CD 1, as well as the Apple Software Recovery (Its like the legacy recovery CD, but for PPC rather than 68k-based systems), and it appears that the MP INIT is not married to the system, and the "multiprocessing" software is available separately from that disk. The multiprocessing software probably works okay from 7.5.3 all the way to 9.1.

 

[rsolberg]

My guess is that Mac OS 8.6 and later don't need/use that MP init, as the Mac OS nanokernel was rewritten for 8.6, notably to add support for the Multiprocessing Services 2.0 API. I would expect multiprocessing support to be baked right in at that point.

 

[olePigeon]

I wonder if it'll work with 7.1.1.

 

[Themk]

Very unlikely, as no system that supported the MP INIT supported 7.1.1, not to mention PowerPC support wasn't even added until 7.1.2

As far as other System 7.1.2 support goes, I know that some configs of the Power Mac 9500 supported 7.1.2, but a few sources state that the multiprocessor one only works with 7.5.3 or higher.

Also, thanks rsolberg for pointing that out, so I will correct my statement: The INIT should work on 7.5.3 to 8.1, from 8.6 on support is built into the MacOS

 

[unity]

I had a 9500/180MP. From what I recall I was running system 7 of sorts. And I very much recall the computer really did not use the second processor unless the software itself was designed for it. For example, I had to get a special plugin for Photoshop to use the second processor. The system itself did not, as best I recall, use the second processor for anything.

Really the DP plugin was like a hardware level enabler. Like those needed for accelerator cards. And then software that was written to use more than one CPU could.

The ONLY time I actually got the computer to truly use both CPUs was under BeOS - and that was WICKED fast and fun. Blew sys 7 outta the water when it can to app launch speed, etc. In fact, BeOS was the first time I ever experianced playing a video in a window and moving that window without the video pausing, getting choppy, etc. Under Sys7 or MacOS, doing so always paused video playback.

Damn.. I miss those fun experimental days.

 

[NJRoadfan]

Multiprocessor support in classic MacOS was an application level API. The OS didn't gain any SMP support until OS X. Back in the day, the best way to take advantage of a DP system was to run BeOS.

 

[ScutBoy]

BeOS on the Daystar Genesis MP 4-way is fun    I need to take a "family portrait" of the Genesis and the BeBox doing teapots together....

 

[olePigeon]

I'd like to see a video of a Daystar Genesis MP running BeOS.

 

[CC_333]

Too bad BeOS doesn't run on the MDD. I bet it'd really fly!

Or does it? Hmm!

Checking...

c

 

[Cory5412]

On the PowerPC side of things BeOS will not run on any G3 or newer. It's kind of a shame, but it's probably related to BeOS' ultimate death on the PPC platform around that time. It trodded along on x86 for a few more years before fizzling out, and then about ten to fifteen years ago being revived as Haiku.

I can confirm that Haiku and BeOS R5 for x86 PCs is utterly insane on newer hardware. The operative thought process there is that you can only launch 1995's greatest so instantly.

 

[IPalindromeI]

I think it supports the G3 CPU (if you have an accelerator) - it doesn't support the chipset on G3s though.

 

[Themk]

Its too bad that these systems can't boot Mac OS X, then you could still say you are using "mac OS" while actually having a use for the 2nd CPU. BeOS seems like it would be fun on a multiprocessor system.

 

[CC_333]

Some Power Macs that are BeOS compatible can, with a G3 card (and maybe Xpostfacto), run Mac OS X quite well. No DP G3s exist though, presumably because the G3 doesn't do SMP or whatever.

Can BeOS run with a G4 upgrade?

c

 

[Compgeke]

Nope. It won't even work on a g3 upgrade. I just had to try myself on a few systems, Supermac S900 with a G4/450, 9600 with a G3/350 and a PowerComputing something or another with a G3/300. Just hangs at the splash screen with a G3 or G4.