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From: "John S. Dyson" <toor@dyson.iquest.net>
Message-Id: <199612101820.NAA00352@dyson.iquest.net>
Subject: Re: FreeBSD on a PPRO
To: lindgren@istudio.no (Simon Lindgren)
Date: Tue, 10 Dec 1996 13:20:28 -0500 (EST)
Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
In-Reply-To: <3.0.32.19961210182048.00ba6680@istudio.no> from "Simon Lindgren" at Dec 10, 96 06:20:49 pm
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>
> Does FreeBSD (2.1.6R) take full potential of a Pentium PRO?
>
Not quite.  It isn't terrible though.

>
> Will there be a significant speed-increase when upgrading from a
> regular pentium of same speeds?
> 
Yes.  The PPro is mostly nicer than the P5 on FreeBSD.  However,
there are still some PCI bus problems on the PPro (actually the
Natoma/Orion chipsets.)  I think that if you are "pushing" the PCI
bus, the Triton-II on a P5 will do you better.  Compile times, etc.
are better on a P6, and SMP will work much better.

>
> Some insight would be appreciated.
> 
The 2.1.X series hasn't had serious VM work done on in in about 1-2yrs.  It
performs okay, but is about 1 generation behind.  The 2.2 series is much
better and has some improvements for PPros.  (Global TLB bits, use of
bswap, etc...)  2.2 will also work better on large systems.

John