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Subject: Re: Linux SMP

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 20:17:39 09/01/03

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On September 01, 2003 at 07:41:58, scott farrell wrote:

>On August 31, 2003 at 20:38:23, Russell Reagan wrote:
>
>I'll vouch for linux SMP being sub par.
>
>I think for compute intensive it is fine.
>
>For IO intensive it is lousy. For large memory it is lousy.

Based on what?  I have some 2 gig and 4 gig linux boxes.  Running huge
raid-5 NFS-exported filesystems.  It runs like the blazes.  I can sustain
disk-type speeds over a gigabit network connection, which says I/O is not
a problem on SMP linux boxes.  At least the 4-cpu machines (and duals of
course) that I am using here...


>
>So for chess, its probably OK, and more controllable than windows.
>
>The fact that CPU are cheaper (INTEL vs SUN) is why people like Robert like it
>better. I am sure nobody would knock back solaris on a SUN box with CPUs that
>match intel - if you disregard the price difference.

The problem is there are _no_ sun CPUs that match intel performance.  Not
a single one is within a factor of 1/3 the speed of the latest intel boxes...


>
>
>>In a unix system administration class today, the professor said that the SMP
>>support in Linux isn't very good. He said it's okay if you're doing 2x or maybe
>>4x, but he said that anything higher than that and you should use something like
>>Solaris, and gave the impression that Solaris was a very solid choice for an SMP
>>machine.
>>
>>I was suprised that he said this, because (IIRC) Dr. Hyatt uses Redhat Linux,
>>and he doesn't seem to think very highly of Sun, and he obviously knows a
>>"little" about all things SMP ;-)
>>
>>I have a few questions in regards to how different operating systems compare in
>>terms of SMP support.
>>
>>Which operating systems are preferred?
>>
>>Which operating systems should be avoided?
>>
>>How is Windows?
>>
>>How is FreeBSD? I heard Gian-Carlo saying something about FreeBSD not having
>>good multithreaded support.
>>
>>If Linux has sub-par SMP support, will this be improved in kernel 2.6?



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