From owner-freebsd-arch Thu Aug 17 20:21:31 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Received: from berserker.bsdi.com (berserker.twistedbit.com [199.79.183.1]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7024637B43E; Thu, 17 Aug 2000 20:21:27 -0700 (PDT) Received: from berserker.bsdi.com (cp@LOCALHOST [127.0.0.1]) by berserker.bsdi.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id VAA19373; Thu, 17 Aug 2000 21:21:09 -0600 (MDT) Message-Id: <200008180321.VAA19373@berserker.bsdi.com> To: Terry Lambert Cc: rob@controlq.com (Robert S. Sciuk), freebsd-sparc@freebsd.org, freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Subject: Re: your mail From: Chuck Paterson Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 21:21:09 -0600 Sender: owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG At the macro architectural level the approach being taken is not that unlike Solaris which has been shown to run acceptability with something greater than 4 processors. It is also true that until we get it up and stable and can work on those areas, such as the single scheduling lock, it is not going to scale above a smallish number of processors. It simply is not practical to do everything at once, debugging the simplified scheme is tough enough. Chuck } }I have rather grave concerns about some of the technical }approaches being pursued in this attempt, particularly as }concerns use of kernel threads to dumb-down state machines }to the point that linear thinkers can understand them. The }SMP scaling strategy currently looks to be limited in value }over 4 processors, which is supposedly an Intel limitation, }but which others (e.g. Sequent) have demonstrated is really }a limitation of the approach used to solve the problem. } }I actually rather doubt that it will beat NT performance, since }free software projects appear to have a Roche limit over a certain }level of complexity that prevents them from doing some things. It }has been a tendancy of many commercial companies, fearing open }source, to drive increasing complexity into IETF standards (IMO, }without technical necessity) in order to protect their shrinking }domain without having to actually confront the other commercial }companies eating into their market. } } } Terry Lambert } terry@lambert.org To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-arch" in the body of the message