From owner-freebsd-smp@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Nov 5 09:10:26 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-smp@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9F56F16A4CE for ; Wed, 5 Nov 2003 09:10:26 -0800 (PST) Received: from main.gmane.org (main.gmane.org [80.91.224.249]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F2B5943FBF for ; Wed, 5 Nov 2003 09:10:24 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from freebsd-smp@m.gmane.org) Received: from root by main.gmane.org with local (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1AHRAk-0003Jh-00 for ; Wed, 05 Nov 2003 18:10:22 +0100 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ To: freebsd-smp@freebsd.org Received: from sea.gmane.org ([80.91.224.252]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1AHQzu-00035c-00 for ; Wed, 05 Nov 2003 17:59:10 +0100 Received: from news by sea.gmane.org with local (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 1AHQzu-0001zR-00 for ; Wed, 05 Nov 2003 17:59:10 +0100 From: Jesse Guardiani Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2003 11:59:02 -0500 Organization: WingNET Lines: 39 Message-ID: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org User-Agent: KNode/0.7.2 X-Mail-Copies-To: never Sender: news Subject: SMPng question X-BeenThere: freebsd-smp@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: jesse@wingnet.net List-Id: FreeBSD SMP implementation group List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 05 Nov 2003 17:10:26 -0000 Howdy list, I have a few questions about FreeBSD's in-progress SMPng project. I've read much of the literature on the FreeBSD site about SMPng, and I've taken the time to go through the project status pages and look at the work that has already been done and the work yet to be done here: http://www.freebsd.org/smp/index.html http://www.freebsd.org/projects/busdma/index.html But I'm still unclear about a few things: 1.) What, exactly, are SMPng's advantages over the current SMP implementation as related to userland apps? In other words, I know that the network stack and devices and such will benefit by being able to make use of multiple CPUs, but will normal non-multi-threaded apps be able to use multiple CPUs? Or will an app still have to be multi-threaded in order to take full advantage of an SMP box? 2.) And, perhaps as an extension to question #1: Will I be able to make use of multiple CPUs to compile programs? Could I buy one of those cheap $300 quad Xeon 500mhz compaq boxes on ebay and use it as a 2 Ghz compiler box? Thanks! -- Jesse Guardiani, Systems Administrator WingNET Internet Services, P.O. Box 2605 // Cleveland, TN 37320-2605 423-559-LINK (v) 423-559-5145 (f) http://www.wingnet.net