Re: dumb question about multi-core processors...
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On 02/16/07 15:58, Michael Fothergill wrote:
> Dear Debianists,
>
> I read an article:
>
>
> http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=032003A1JK8W
>
> It says that Intel has made a chip with 80 processors on it that it says
> is a teraflops device and only uses a low power consumption.
>
> But the article suggests that it is tough to write an OS to take
> advantage of a large number of such processors.....
>
> Dumb question 1:
>
> How tough would it be to produce a version of Debian that could run this
> sort of chip if a commercial version of it were made available?
The existing x86-64 kernel should handle an 80-core system.
The problem with high-CPU-count SMP systems is coordinating the
processes, sharing cache and RAM. NUMA was created to mitigate this.
Depending on the physical design of the CPU & glue logic, and how
how the OS is written, adding CPUs it might show unacceptably low
incremental improvement after 2, 4, 8, etc CPUs. SparcSolaris can
handle up to 128 CPUs on their big system.
Obviously the the application mixture also affects the suitability
of N-way SMP systems.
> Dumb question 2:
>
> Could it be that if Intel puts out a chip or array of chips or whatever
> its called of this type that the existing OS companies like MIcrosoft
> and Apple would take so long to figure out and implement an OS that run
> on it that Linux might be the only usable option for such a long time
> that it might even end up with an effective monopoly here?
Fat chance. People also said that the expense of upgrading to Vista
would incite a great migration to Linux. Hasn't happened. Won't
happen.
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