From owner-freebsd-amd64@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jan 4 23:13:38 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: amd64@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-amd64@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 603DB16A412 for ; Thu, 4 Jan 2007 23:13:38 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from zombyfork@gmail.com) Received: from wx-out-0506.google.com (wx-out-0506.google.com [66.249.82.232]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0A8AE13C441 for ; Thu, 4 Jan 2007 23:13:37 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from zombyfork@gmail.com) Received: by wx-out-0506.google.com with SMTP id s18so6412123wxc for ; Thu, 04 Jan 2007 15:13:37 -0800 (PST) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:reply-to:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:references; b=jqT+mkdZw8d6Qp/VC9OlmB+WUAi0O5nqjPRhBCGCK1TwaWeRuk21PONHOYq5iRSfynC2tIUo8UkdJg6eenm9T8feukxQOUMET/oV54DagYKceVOliaZRIhU/C68aFqvQCbnegwjIjb6zbtypr45Dwidpu2vMyKYdxOraQ5J7gc4= Received: by 10.90.63.16 with SMTP id l16mr544080aga.1167950740827; Thu, 04 Jan 2007 14:45:40 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.90.101.15 with HTTP; Thu, 4 Jan 2007 14:45:40 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <346a80220701041445m26df386p84778e9ce574f02b@mail.gmail.com> Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2007 15:45:40 -0700 From: "Coleman Kane" To: "Ken Gunderson" In-Reply-To: <20061226153416.a2aacc13.kgunders@teamcool.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 References: <20061226104440.5d52417b.kgunders@teamcool.net> <20061226153416.a2aacc13.kgunders@teamcool.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Cc: amd64@freebsd.org Subject: Re: >32GB memory with Xeon ? X-BeenThere: freebsd-amd64@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: cokane@cokane.org List-Id: Porting FreeBSD to the AMD64 platform List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 04 Jan 2007 23:13:38 -0000 On 12/26/06, Ken Gunderson wrote: > > On Wed, 27 Dec 2006 05:08:36 +0900 > Hiroharu Tamaru wrote: > > > At Tue, 26 Dec 2006 10:44:40 -0700, Ken Gunderson wrote: > > > > > > On Tue, 26 Dec 2006 23:07:58 +0900 > > > Hiroharu Tamaru wrote: > > > > > > > Hello list, > > > > > > > > Is there any limit on the amount of memory that can be used > > > > with FreeBSD 6.x/amd64 ? I found that FreeBSD/ia64 > > > > currently has 2GB limit. I was wondering how amd64 is like. > > > > > > > > Specifically, I am thinking of a Dual-core x Dual-processor > > > > Xeon 5160, with 5000P chipset and something like 40GB of > > > > RAM. > > > > > > Any particular reason you've ruled out AMD platform? I know some > folks > > > who've done some big enterprise class SAP machines based on AMD and > > > Linux. Not 100% sure but I think I recall AMD8111 and AMD8131 chipsets > > > and boards fully loaded with 32GB. > > > > No, I haven't ruled it out yet. In fact, I've just started > > looking around. > > My usage is computation, and previous experiences showed > > that for our workload, the main memory bandwidth gave the > > largest influence on speed (it has a very low data > > locality). We have IA64 system running Linux as well (it's > > running Linux b/c we have large memory there too), but > > hearing that recent Woodcrest Xeons can have upto 21+GB/s > > bandwidth to the RAM, I got interested and started seeking > > around hardwarewise and softwarewise for possible options. > > Do you have any advice/comments in this regard for AMD > > platform too? > > I personally don't have any recent experience with anything that large > and when I did it was on "big iron". I've been sold on the AMD > platform for the past couple years, especially for server usage. AMD's > approach to integrating the memory controller w/the cpu has been a big > win for them as they've been kicking Intel's butt as of late. But > perhaps the Woodcrest will be Intel's savior. But then again as soon > as Intel seems to do a bit of "catching up", AMD releases their latest > and greatest. Check the "Roadmap" at amd.com. Quad cores are due > to be out 2nd quarter of 2007 and many current am2 generation boards > will supposedly be able to support them after a BIOS flash. I say > supposedly because such was also "supposed" to be the case with the > single to dual core. In some cases it worked and others not. I think > mainly a matter of mainboard vendor. > > Issues you can run into with AMD platform often have to do with > particular chipset used. The 8111 and 8131 are old but well supported. > I think they max at 32GB though and only DDR1, not DDR2. Research > anything using nVidia* carefully. Fwiw, I've never been favorably > impressed w/Serverworks based board, even on i386. > > Others here will be able to provide more, but I suspect you'll get more > response after the holidays. > > > -- > > Best regards, > > Ken Gunderson > > "The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty > decreases." (Thomas Jefferson) Hey all, When I first looked into the amd64 platform I did research and made sure to stay far from the nForce offerings that were around. I found a laptop with a VIA chipset that has been pretty good to me, and was pretty decently supported back in the early days of amd64 support in FreeBSD. >From what I can tell, the nForce offerings are still troublesome but there are many patches to work-around their problems. The VIA offerings seem to be much more compatible. -- Coleman Kane