Virtual Wire Mode; Virtual Wire Mode Via Local Apic - Intel MultiProcessor Specification

3.6.2.2

Virtual Wire Mode

Virtual Wire Mode provides a uniprocessor hardware environment capable of booting and running
all DOS shrink-wrapped software.
In Virtual Wire Mode, as shown in Figure 3-3, the 8259A-equivalent PIC fields all interrupts, and
the local APIC of the BSP becomes a virtual wire, which delivers interrupts from the PIC to the
BSP via the local APIC's local interrupt 0 (LINTIN0). The LINTIN0 pin of the local APIC is
programmed as ExtINT, specifying to the APIC that the PIC is to serve as an external interrupt
controller. Whenever the local APIC finds that a particular interrupt is of type ExtINT, it asserts
the ExtINTA transaction along with the PINT interrupt to the processor. In this case, the I/O APIC
is not used.
REG.
MARK
LINTIN1
LINTIN0
RESET
ICC BUS
NMI
INTERRUPT INPUTS
SHADED AREAS INDICATE UNUSED CIRCUITS. DOTTED LINE SHOWS INTERRUPT PATH.
Version 1.4
BSP
CPU 1
NMI INTR
LOCAL
APIC
1
LINTIN0 LINTIN1 LINTIN0
Figure 3-3. Virtual Wire Mode via Local APIC
AP1
CPU 2
NMI INTR NMI INTR
LOCAL
APIC
2
LINTIN1 LINTIN0
8259A-
INTR
EQUIVALENT
PICS
Hardware Specification
AP2
CPU 3
LOCAL
APIC
3
LINTIN1
I/O
APIC
3-9