Multi-processor 286 systems?

[jh1523]

I'm reading through Intel's Introduction to the iAPX 286 from 1982, and on page 2-8 it touts how the 286 is ideally suited for multi-processor systems. This got me thinking: were there ever any multi-processor 286 systems (not necessarily IBM PC-compatible, but any architecture)? I'm not aware of any. Intel's claim sounds a bit odd after 30 years if anything.

 

[tom1000000]

You can also go to Wikipedia and download the Intel 8086 manual. If I remember correctly, the 8086 apparently also supports multi-processing.

So did anyone ever build any multi-processor 8086 / 80286 / 80386 systems????

 

[per]

The 8086 to 8089 had (together with the 8288 Bus Controller) the 8289 Bus Arbiter that maintained any handshaking requiered for the MULTIBUS system.

I highlt doubt anything PC-related used it though...

 

[pearce_jj]

The Compaq SystemPro was I think the first multi processor PC class system. Previous thread with some interesting info about Microsoft support (or lack of) for n-way 386 systems post NT3.1.

DOS obviously didn't support any kind of threading, presumably making (A)SMP irrelevant in the PC space. I'm not sure about workstation market in the 80's but some gaming machines made use of multiple 68000 CPUs, Sega Outrun for example (1986).

 

[Chuck(G)]

Military electronics saw some multiprocessor 286 use also.

While not exactly multiprocessor, fault-tolerant systems were coming into their own then, and there were a few multi-CPU majority-logic type systems rolled out. To the best of my knowledge, none used shared memory, however.

 

[bear]

The intel iPSC supercomputer used 80286 processors in a hypercube arrangement.

 

[Unknown_K]

Never seen one, but would be cool to have one IF you had the correct OS and apps that went with it. The problem with those early MP pc's is they were so proprietary that you only purchased them as complete systems for specific tasks with custom software (Unix based?) or wrote your own in house.

How did NT 3.1 multi task with multiple CPU's anyway? It just gave each app its own CPU? What apps made use of more then 1 CPU at that time?

 

[lowen]

Don't think apps; think processes or threads. The OS is already multitasking; parallel threads running is a bit more work but VMS and Unix have been doing this for years. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT_3.1#Architecture for an overview. There's a lot more running on an NT system than the user's app.

 

[longi]

You can also go to Wikipedia and download the Intel 8086 manual. If I remember correctly, the 8086 apparently also supports multi-processing.

So did anyone ever build any multi-processor 8086 / 80286 / 80386 systems????

Yes. AST made quad processor 386s that ran both NT3.1 upwards and SCO unix.