Date: Fri, 28 May 2010 09:29:00 +0100 From: Matthew Seaman <m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: BSD support for latest hardware Message-ID: <4BFF7ECC.9010500@infracaninophile.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <AD744F65584E394E9B23E96EE6600AE13D729341@AUSX7MCPC110.AMER.DELL.COM> References: <AD744F65584E394E9B23E96EE6600AE13D729341@AUSX7MCPC110.AMER.DELL.COM>
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-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 28/05/2010 05:18:35, Chip_Bailey@Dell.com wrote: > I'm interested in finding out if the latest version of freebsd > supports the latest processors from AMD (Magny-Cours) & Intel Nehalem > EP(Westmere) & EX? Yes, sure it does. > How many cpu cores are supported in a single server? Max memory? I think the formal limit is "more than you could sensibly expect to use." Practically speaking, FreeBSD will perform well on a machine with 8 or 16 cores given an appropriate multi-threaded workload. Maximum RAM is always determined by the capacity of the motherboard (assuming a 64bit machine). You want 768GB RAM? No problem. > The release notes seem to reference old hardware (not a bad thing) > but I'm focused on latest architectures. > > Thanks for any input or pointers to where I can find this > information. Asking whether *processors* are supported is really the wrong question. Processors are by their nature code-compatible with older models, so, yes, the OS will run on those CPUs[*]. You want to look at the motherboard chipsets and peripherals such as SAS/SATA controllers as the limiting factors. Unfortunately in this case, you won't find a great deal of information about what is supported at the leading edge -- motherboard manufacturers seem to think that testing against Windows and Linux is sufficient. FreeBSD tends to list support by the model name and number of the specific components in question, rather than the whole hardware platform. See, for example the man pages for eg. amr(4) http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=amr&apropos=0&sektion=0&manpath=FreeBSD+8.0-RELEASE&format=html The FreeBSD project does target the hardware produced by big-name vendors such as HP, Dell, Intel. Probably none of those will officially support FreeBSD (not that hardware vendor support of an OS is really that critical when making purchasing decisions) -- but find the right bod in their support departments, and they will tell you off the record if FreeBSD works or not. Commodity H/W manufacturers like Asus, Tyan, Supermicro are a different matter -- there are more or less formal arrangements for getting sample kit into the hands of FreeBSD developers from some of these, but it's all a bit ad hoc. If you can, try firing up a live CD on the hardware before you put your money down. You will generally be pleasantly surprised: most server grade kit is pretty well supported. Cheers, Matthew [*] Support for the very latest code features and CPU specific optimizations does take some time to percolate through to RELEASE versions; exacerbated at the moment by the incompatibility of the GPLv3 license and hence the ongoing project to shift from gcc to llvm/clang as the system compiler. - -- Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 7 Priory Courtyard Flat 3 PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Ramsgate JID: matthew@infracaninophile.co.uk Kent, CT11 9PW -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG/MacGPG2 v2.0.14 (Darwin) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAkv/fswACgkQ8Mjk52CukIxDhgCeOuHoJDn507zmtGYnyLKE8bab 46EAoISQtZ25cMlp9CSVV5BAWzyhgLMR =wEIS -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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