From owner-freebsd-smp@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jul 16 08:56:31 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 25CD037B401 for ; Wed, 16 Jul 2003 08:56:31 -0700 (PDT) Received: from pirx.hexapodia.org (pirx.hexapodia.org [208.42.114.113]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1875743F3F for ; Wed, 16 Jul 2003 08:56:30 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from adi@hexapodia.org) Received: by pirx.hexapodia.org (Postfix, from userid 22448) id 436F4B433; Wed, 16 Jul 2003 10:56:29 -0500 (CDT) Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 10:56:29 -0500 From: Andy Isaacson To: Terry Lambert Message-ID: <20030716105629.A21686@hexapodia.org> References: <20030715121429.A11267@hexapodia.org> <3F145157.4050009@fsn.hu> <3F14F20D.605BEBD5@mindspring.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i In-Reply-To: <3F14F20D.605BEBD5@mindspring.com>; from tlambert2@mindspring.com on Tue, Jul 15, 2003 at 11:34:53PM -0700 X-PGP-Fingerprint: 48 01 21 E2 D4 E4 68 D1 B8 DF 39 B2 AF A3 16 B9 X-PGP-Key-URL: http://web.hexapodia.org/~adi/pgp.txt X-Domestic-Surveillance: money launder bomb tax evasion cc: freebsd-smp@freebsd.org cc: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Patrik_Vesel=EDk?= Subject: Re: maximum of CPUs X-BeenThere: freebsd-smp@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: FreeBSD SMP implementation group List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 15:56:31 -0000 On Tue, Jul 15, 2003 at 11:34:53PM -0700, Terry Lambert wrote: > Attila Nagy wrote: > > Andy Isaacson wrote: > > > I can't tell if you're talking about "supported by FreeBSD" or > > > "supported running any OS". Several vendors sell boxes with 32 x86 > > > processors, including IBM (the part that used to be Sequent), Unisys, > > > and one of the Japanese vendors (NEC or Fujitsu or something like that). > > > The easiest to find links to is > > > http://www.unisys.com/products/es7000__servers/hardware/index.htm > > > > Even Linux needs a patch for these machines :) > > http://lists.insecure.org/lists/linux-kernel/2003/Jun/2612.html > > > > AFAIK until this patch, only Windows 2000 was officially supported by > > Unisys. > > The Sequent Symmetry (i386 based) was the same machine as the > Unisys 5000/20, which was an OEM version of the box. I was > pretty sure that the ES7000/40 was also an OEM Sequent box? > > If so, it may be that if they didn't put too much vendor BIOS > voodoo in the things, this would also let them run on matching > Sequent badged hardware... and that's some pretty cool iron, > even these days. Hmm, I thought the 7000 series is Unisys-designed, but further research makes me uncertain. IBM nee Sequent has a serious effort going to get Linux running well on their 8- to 32-CPU boxes. The Unisys effort seems much more lackadaisical. IBM is looking to run single large database images (and whatnot) on theirs, while Unisys seems to be content doing server consolidation. So IBM is working on large SMP scaling issues, while Sequent is just adding the necessary BIOS/APIC/ppb support. Note that Unisys also supports Linux on their mainframe-hybrid boxes like the ClearPath: http://www.unisys.com/products/clearpath__servers/clearpath__plus__os__2200/models.htm -andy