Date: Fri, 03 Apr 1998 15:36:19 -0600 From: Tony Overfield <tony@dell.com> To: "Kenneth D. Merry" <ken@plutotech.com>, dbader@eece.unm.edu (David A. Bader) Cc: smp@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Multi- processor FreeBSD SMP Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.19980403153619.006fa124@bugs.us.dell.com> In-Reply-To: <199804031746.KAA03373@panzer.plutotech.com> References: <199804031624.JAA06333@jalapeno.eece.unm.edu>
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>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. It works well, I've used the SMP FreeBSD on these systems. >> 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? The Dell Workstation 400 motherboard, BIOS, and chassis were designed completely by Dell. Dell only buys the CPU modules and some of the other chips from Intel. At 10:46 AM 4/3/98 -0700, Kenneth D. Merry wrote: > 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. Hmm, I can't say anything about that, but I do know that the WorkStation 400 performs very well with the SMP kernel, in my own testing. > 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. The onboard ethernet is a 3Com 3c905, which works great with everything but the FreeBSD driver. The FreeBSD driver does work, but it doesn't work great since it uses PIO transfers instead of bus-master transfers. >(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 >===== That's good news. >The Intel EtherExpress support in FreeBSD, however, is just fine. If you want, you can order an Intel Pro 100/B with the WorkStation 400, and Dell will install it for you. -Tony -speaking only for myself, of course To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-smp" in the body of the message
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