OpenBSD Journal

amd64 SMP support ready for testing.

Contributed by grey on from the keep the c2k4 stories coming dept.

Thanks to Jolan Luff for pointing out this noteworthy c2k4 improvement: SMP support for amd64! Commit message may be found here. And here is a posting to misc@ with the announcement as well.

Choice quote from art@: 

"Kernel compile time on a quad machine with whatever lousy drives AMD puts
in them (make -j7 PIPE=-pipe) is around 80 seconds. We could get really
used to those machines, too bad it's only a loaner."
Looks like now might be a good time to start looking at new hardware. While one of Tyan's S4882UG2NR quad opteron motherboards is about $1650, they have many dual motherboards to choose from some brands can be had in the $250 and up range. And coming soon iWill is going to be offering a dual opteron small form factor system. If memory serves, there's only one major vendor not shipping opteron servers so you may be able to find some good deals if you don't want to build yourself as well. And of course, from personal experience, I can say that developers have liked fast hardware donations in the past if any readers feel so inclined. >:)

(Comments are closed)

Comments
  1. Comments

    1. By grey (64.139.7.172) on

      Indeed. And, while not as topical as SMP amd64 support, there are a number of AMD64 laptops to be found. Some of which are starting to look quite decent, e.g. acer's ferrari 3200 seen here. Even first tier laptop vendors like Fujitsu are beginning to offer amd64 models (thanks for pointing that out dan). While secondary to amd64 dual+ machine donations, I doubt anyone would thumb their noses at getting these. Just think how much cheaper they are than a sparc64 tadpole, which reminds me that tadpole has announced an Opteron-based laptop.

      Obviously I've been heavily intrigued by amd64, but personally I'm still waiting a bit until pci-express (and expresscard for laptops) systems start appearing (various chipsets, and the upcoming HypterTransport 2.0 spec with pci-e/pcx support have been announced, but most of these aren't due out until around fall at the earliest e.g. as this report makes mention of). That said, I'm not sure how difficult it will be to get support for this new bus standard with OpenBSD just yet (and while currently only graphics cards will take advantage of it I can quickly see it filling needs for say a quad port version of this.

      Anyone with comments on PCI-Express support and OpenBSD? Intel-oriented systems and pci-e graphics cards are hitting the streets, or should be soon if not hampered too much by recalls.

      Comments

      1. By Anonymous Coward (67.64.89.177) on

        PCI-E is out for at least 2 years in laptops so unless you have a lot of time on your hands you can easily buy something today.

        Comments

        1. By Brad (209.5.161.221) brad at comstyle dot com on

          Put the crack pipe down, PCI-E isn't even out yet so that is not possible.

          Comments

          1. By Anonymous Coward (24.34.57.27) on

            Funny, I just bought a Dell with PCI-E. Maybe I should tell them that it doesn't exist.

            Comments

            1. By Anonymous Coward (68.147.25.15) on

              yup, also, take a look at the G5's (I know openbsd doesn't run on them... yet) but they too come with PCI-E (at least the 2/3 top models do).

              Comments

              1. By Anonymous Coward (65.103.206.70) on

                The Apple's G5 comes with PCI-X not PCI-E.

                Comments

                1. By Brad (209.5.161.221) brad at comstyle dot com on

                  Exactly, PCI-X is far from PCI-E and no laptops do NOT come with PCI-E.

    2. By Anonymous Coward (64.119.174.202) on

      You have to spend money to make money.

  3. By gwyllion (134.58.253.130) on

    Dale Rahn is in need of a macpcc SMP machine to continue development: misc: SMP macppc

  4. By Drinkmore Kaffeine (198.133.180.2) on

    All major credible manufacturers have or will have an AMD64 product line in the near future. Dell is not a major credible manufacturer.

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