Re: Dual CPU's and Debian Linux
Syrus Nemat-Nasser <syrus@ucsd.edu> writes:
> My research group will soon upgrade a mission-critical Debian machine
> to 256M of RAM for running FPU-intensive simulations. I will get to
> choose a new motherboard and CPU combo as well, but I'll be limited on
> price which probably means no pentium pro. My question regards the
> Tyan Tomcat III dual CPU motherboard--is this a good way to go for a
> mission critical machine? What do I need to know before using a dual
> CPU setup?
With 256M of RAM, more of your cost is probably going towards RAM than
CPU. I'd consider going with a Pentium Pro.
Make sure you get 256K or 512K of pipeline-burst cache.
I am currently evaluating two dual Pentium Pro motherboards. The Tyan
S1668 Titan-Pro ATX and the Intel Providence 440FX. I'm leaning towards
the Tyan, but there isn't much difference.
SMP Linux can sometimes lock-up when running very intensive programs.
The only kernel version which I believe to run pretty stable is 2.1.29.
After that, the SMP-lockup fixes are more experimental, but will
eventually lead to better SMP performance. 2.1.30 to 2.1.36 can lock
up.
SCSI: get the Buslogic 958.
100 Mbps ethernet: some 100BaseTX ethernet cards can spam the network
under intensive load. I suggest staying away from the DEC tulip-based
cards. We have good luck with the Intel eepro, but the current driver
takes a long time (5 to 10 minutes) to initialize.
I'd also recommend getting an ATX motherboard.
Check out <URL:http://www.tdl.com/~netex/>. It has some good advice on
RAM, motherboards, and CPU.
Dan
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