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Date: Mon, 2 Jun 1997 19:40:32 -0700
From: "Jin Guojun[ITG]" <jin@george.lbl.gov>
Message-Id: <199706030240.TAA16816@george.lbl.gov>
To: smp@csn.net
Subject: Re: SMP (3.0-970527-SNAP) on dual pentium machines
Cc: hardware@FreeBSD.ORG, smp@FreeBSD.ORG
Sender: owner-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG
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} > I have two different dual pentium motherboards:
} >       1)      ASUS P/I-P65UP5 with C-P55T2D
} >       2)      TYAN S1563D
} > 
} > neither of them really gets worked for SMP. Here is the testing result by
} > using pthread library -lc_r:
} > 
} > -----------------------
} > 
} > FreeBSD with single CPU:
} > 60 /data/src: vfft mri.b128 > /dev/null
} > 9.7u 0.1s 0:09.95 99.3% 97+11132k 0+0io 0pf+0w
} > 
} > FreeBSD with dual CPU + pthread (failure SMP):
} > 62 /data/src: vfft.mt < mri.b128 > /dev/null
} > 9.5u 0.2s 0:09.83 99.1% 77+11822k 0+0io 0pf+0w
} > 
} > 
} > -----------------------
} > 
} > Solaris 2.5.1.u8 with single CPU:
} > 67 /home/data/src: vfft mri.b128 > /dev/null
} > 12.0u 0.0s 0:13 87% 0+0k 0+0io 0pf+0w
} > 
} > Solaris 2.5.1.u8 with dual CPU + thread (SMP):
} > 69 /home/data/src: vfft.mt mri.b128 > /dev/null
} > 12.0u 0.0s 0:07 168% 0+0k 0+0io 0pf+0w
} > 
} > -----------------------

Actually, I had a mistake on testing of FreeBSD with dual CPU + pthread.
The SMP /kernel.smp was not booted when doing above testing due to some problem.
After trying different SMP options for SMP kernel, I still cannot make it work
on these two motherboards. Both systems have page fault (12) after message:
apm0: disabled, not probed.

(cpu#0) panic: page fault ...

The /sys/i386/conf/KSMP configuration file is attached at end of this message.

} what you are demonstrating is the fact that we do not yet have kernel threads
} working.  The threads provided by our libc_r all run in one process, thus no 
} improvement in thruput for your test.
} 
} Note that FreeBSD does much better (if I'm reading thse right) than Solaris
} in the single CPU test.  Once we have kernel threads we should also do 
} substantially better than Solaris in the MP test.

Yes. What you read is the truth. In comparing BSD/OS, FreeBSD, Solaris.x86,
FreeBSD has the best performance at most areas. That is the reason that we are
working on FreeBSD for developing high end file server.

It is appreciated if some one can tell me if above motherboards have been
tested under FreeBSD 3.0. If not, what are the motherboards tested for SMP
version? I do really like to run FreeBSD on some dual pentium (not P6) boxes.

Thanks,

-Jin