Intel passes buck on P4 compatibility

Intel has admitted that not all Linux operating systems support its Pentium 4 chip. The company is blaming suppliers of some 'out-of-the-box' versions of the open source operating system which cannot identify the microprocessor.

But according to the Linux 2.2.18 kernel notes, this is because Intel has broken the usual pattern in CPUID model numbering without informing Linux developers.

"Intel chose to ignore all precedents in model numbering via CPUID and report a family of '15'," stated the notes. "This sudden jump broke assumptions in the kernel tree without any warning."

Intel officials acknowledged the difficulty of recognition but said it was up to the individual Linux vendors to update their operating system releases to bring them into compliance with the Pentium 4 chip.

Graham Palmer, UK public relations manager at Intel, said the operating system needed an update to recognise the code. "I am not aware that we changed the pattern of CPUID," he said. "Linux vendors need to update their product."

The only version of Linux that Intel has certified to be working with the Pentium 4 is Red Hat 7.0, while TurboLinux Workstation Pro 6.1 could function through a manual workaround.

Other Linux releases, such as Caldera, Corel, MandrakeSoft and SuSE, do not include CPU-identifying information in their own CPUID databases. These versions of Linux fail to recognise the chip, and suspend the installation of the operating system.

Pentium 4-based computers were launched in November of last year after a series of delays. While the chip runs at a faster clock speed than others, benchmark testers and analysts have said that it does not provide quantum leaps in performance.

It performs well on multimedia applications but is outperformed on business applications by the fastest Athlon processor from Advanced Micro Devices.

First published in Network News