xapic , x2apic

Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller

xApic = APIC

x2APIC is the most recent generation of the Intel programmable interrupt controller, introduced with the Nehalem microarchitecture.

1. 增加cpu数量支持，原先256个, 现在2＾32个。

The x2APIC now uses 32 bits to address CPUs, allowing to address up to 2^32-1 CPUs using the physical destination mode. The logical destination mode now works differently and introduces clusters. Using this mode, one can address up to 2^20-16 processors.

２：减少ipi中断

The improved interface reduces the number of needed APIC register access for sending Inter-processor interrupts.

3: 和apic兼容

The x2APIC architecture also provides backward compatibility modes to the original Intel APIC Architecture (introduced with the Pentium/P6) and with the xAPICarchitecture (introduced with the Pentium 4).