[OT] IRQs above 15 in Linux

[Adam Myrow]

At 08:47 AM 9/20/02 +1000, you wrote:
>Actually Linux does use irqs higher than 15.
>i've only ever seen it on smp boxes though.

That's funny you should mention SMP boxes.  This machine of mine is an 
SMP-capable machine, but it only has one CPU.  I sort of wonder if extra 
IRQ numbers are a part of the SMP spec?  Whatever the case, it effectively 
lets me have more cards under Linux than is possible under Windows.  I've 
got 4 PCI cards and 2 ISA cards.  They consist of a Dectalk PC which gets 
used under Windows, a Soundblaster AWE64, an Adaptec PCI SCSI card for my 
scanner, a Smartlink Modem that uses the Topic chipset making it usable in 
Linux, and my Linksys ethernet card.  I saw some settings in Windows to use 
PCI 2.1 extensions and stuff about IRQ steering, and will look into this, 
but I sort of doubt I'll come up with much there.  As you can see, my 
system is just full of hardware.  More than likely, I'll eventually get a 
new computer and turn this old one into a strictly Linux box and probably 
the new computer will be dual boot between some version of Windows and Linux.