From owner-freebsd-questions Mon Apr 24 2:12:12 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from freebie.lemis.com (freebie.lemis.com [192.109.197.137]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C78DE37B79F for ; Mon, 24 Apr 2000 02:12:07 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from grog@freebie.lemis.com) Received: (from grog@localhost) by freebie.lemis.com (8.9.3/8.9.0) id SAA21622; Mon, 24 Apr 2000 18:15:49 +0930 (CST) Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2000 18:15:48 +0930 From: Greg Lehey To: Lanny Baron Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG, Lanny Baron Subject: Re: SMP & RAID Message-ID: <20000424181548.E12676@freebie.lemis.com> References: <20000424120119.A12676@freebie.lemis.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 1.0pre2i In-Reply-To: Organization: LEMIS, PO Box 460, Echunga SA 5153, Australia Phone: +61-8-8388-8286 Fax: +61-8-8388-8725 Mobile: +61-418-838-708 WWW-Home-Page: http://www.lemis.com/~grog X-PGP-Fingerprint: 6B 7B C3 8C 61 CD 54 AF 13 24 52 F8 6D A4 95 EF Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Monday, 24 April 2000 at 2:46:26 -0400, Lanny Baron wrote: > On 24-Apr-00 Greg Lehey wrote: >> On Sunday, 23 April 2000 at 2:27:42 -0400, Lanny Baron wrote: >>> Hello, >>> Can I get some information with respect to SNP and how well FreeBSD can >>> handle up to 8 processors. >> >> You mean SMP (symmetrical multiprocessing)? It depends on what you >> want to do. The big limitation is the giant kernel lock which only >> allows one processor to run in kernel mode at any one time. Depending >> on your application, this may make no difference at all, or it may >> completely bog it down. >> >>> Would anyone know what RAID cards are supported. >> >> Take a look at the release notes, for example >> http://www.freebsd.org/releases/4.0R/notes.html. >> >>> Someone sent me mail saying that only Vinum will work. >> >> Don't rely on "someone". > > Yes sorry it is SMP. Typo. > As for what type of application might require multiple cpu's, I > would think large database applications. We've done some comparisons with Solaris in this area recently. They show that we have a long way to go to catch up with Solaris, and we're planning to do some work on it. At the moment, I wouldn't recommend FreeBSD SMP for database applications. > I know for a fact that a certain company with very large database > bogs the entire network down for them. They run AIX and have several > AS400's. A question then arises as to the claims of company's that > sell systems and offer up to 8 CPU's. If FreeBSD cannot utilize the > processing power, how can Linux? As a followup to the Mindcraft benchmarks, Linux has given more attention to kernel locking than we have. Don't count on them being behind us. > This Kernel lock you speak of, is there anyway around it? Sure, it's a SMOP (Simple Matter Of Programming). It took Sun about 5 years to get where they are now. Don't expect us to be any better. Greg -- When replying to this message, please copy the original recipients. For more information, see http://www.lemis.com/questions.html Finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key See complete headers for address and phone numbers To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message