4
BIOS Consideration Checklist
AMD-K6
Processor BIOS Design
21329L/0—December 1999
SMM Issues
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The System Management Mode (SMM) functionality of the
processor is the same as the Pentium
processor.
Implement the processor SMM state-save area in a similar
manner as Pentium processors except for the IDT Base and
possibly Pentium processor-reserved areas. See “System
Management Mode (SMM)” on page 13 for more
information.
AMD-K6
-2 Processor Model 8/[F:8]
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The term
processor
in this section is defined as the AMD-K6-2
processor Model 8/[F:8].
CPUID
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Use the CPUID instruction to properly identify the
processor. For information on the CPUID instruction, refer
to the
AMD Processor Recognition Application Note
, order#
20734.
Determine the processor model, stepping and features using
functions 0000_0001h and 8000_0001h of the CPUID
instruction.
Display BIOS boot string:
AMD-K6(tm)-2/XXX
for all
steppings of the Model 8.
For more information, see “CPUID
Identification Algorithms” on page 9.
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CPU Speed Detection
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Use speed detection algorithms that do not rely on
repetitive instruction sequences.
Use the Time Stamp Counter (TSC) to ‘clock’ a timed
operation and compare the result to the Real Time Clock
(RTC) to determine the operating frequency. See the
CPU
Speed Determination Program
available on the AMD website
at http://www.amd.com/K6/k6docs/.
Display the recommended BIOS boot string as shown in
Table 4, “Summary of AMD-K6
Processor Models and BIOS
Boot String
,” on page 10.
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Model-Specific
Registers (MSRs)
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Only access MSRs implemented in the processor.
Enable Write Allocation by programming the Write
Handling Control Register (WHCR). See “Write Handling
Control
Register
(WHCR)”
Implementation of Write Allocate in the K86 Processors
Application Note
, order# 21326
for more information.
Note:
The WHCR register as defined in the Model 6, Model 7, and
Model 8/[7:0] has changed in the Model 8/[F:8].
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on
page
23
and
the