Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Fri, 3 Apr 1998 10:46:21 -0700 (MST)
From:      "Kenneth D. Merry" <ken@plutotech.com>
To:        dbader@eece.unm.edu (David A. Bader)
Cc:        smp@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Multi- processor FreeBSD SMP
Message-ID:  <199804031746.KAA03373@panzer.plutotech.com>
In-Reply-To: <199804031624.JAA06333@jalapeno.eece.unm.edu> from "David A. Bader" at "Apr 3, 98 09:24:43 am"

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
David A. Bader wrote...

>   I'm looking to purchase a number of dual-Pentium II systems
> (e.g. Dell WorkStation 400 with dual- 333MHz Pentium II processors)
> to run FreeBSD SMP -current.
> 
>   Dell tells me that Intel makes a special motherboard just for
> Dell. Has anyone had luck with this, or know where I can get a nice
> university discount on systems which will boot FreeBSD SMP kernels?

	Well, I haven't had any experience with those Dell systems, but I
do have some advice...:)  You may want to wait until April 15th, when the
350 and 400MHz Pentium II's with the 100MHz front-end bus come out.  They
go along with the 440BX chipset.

	One thing that strikes me as odd in Dell's description of those
motherboards is the fact that they have an on-board 3Com ethernet chip.  I
would think that if Intel is making the board, they'd put an 82558 on
board.  In any case, the 3Com ethernet thing is something to look at, since
the FreeBSD's current 3Com support supposedly isn't all that great.  (Although
Garrett Wollman said on -current a few days ago:
=====
Someone around here has (I think) volunteered to rewrite this driver
from scratch, and is in the process of obtaining all the databooks and
whatnot.

-GAWollman
=====
)
The Intel EtherExpress support in FreeBSD, however, is just fine.

	The good thing about the fact that Intel makes that motherboard (if
indeed that is the case) is that most folks have had good success getting
the SMP kernel to work on Intel boards.

Ken
-- 
Kenneth Merry
ken@plutotech.com

To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-smp" in the body of the message



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199804031746.KAA03373>