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Date:      Wed, 13 Dec 2006 22:17:02 -0700
From:      Scott Long <scottl@samsco.org>
To:        mjacob@freebsd.org
Cc:        cvs-src@freebsd.org, src-committers@freebsd.org, cvs-all@freebsd.org, "David E. O'Brien" <obrien@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: cvs commit: src/sys/amd64/conf GENERIC
Message-ID:  <4580DE4E.3080008@samsco.org>
In-Reply-To: <20061213210116.P26879@ns1.feral.com>
References:  <200612140357.kBE3vY0Q053458@repoman.freebsd.org> <4580CD6A.5090802@samsco.org> <20061213201031.T26658@ns1.feral.com> <4580D3BB.7060504@samsco.org> <20061213210116.P26879@ns1.feral.com>

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mjacob@freebsd.org wrote:
> 
>> There wasn't a full switchover to SMP at 6.0 because an SMP kernel on a
>> UP system incurs a measurable runtime overhead, and we wanted to present
>> a system that showed the best of FreeBSD to people who wanted to run it
> 
> But David's point is that most AMD64 boxes *are* SMP, not UP. Is that 
> wrong?

1. There are plenty of single core Opterons and Athlon64 chips still in
service.  Maybe AMD sells more SMP systems now than UP systems, but 
their prior sales of UP systems didn't magically disappear overnight.

2. The decision was made in spring of 2005, before dual core chips were
widely used.  While we knew that such chips would be available, we
wanted to have consistency for the transition.

3. This change, had it not been reverted, would have broken the
consistency in the major release stream that we were trying to achieve.
You spell it 'POLA', I spell it 'consistent'.  Either way, I think that
we both have a deep concern and appreciation for doing the right thing
and not pissing people off with surprises.

4. When 7.0 is released in 2007, the transition will be complete.

Scott




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