Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Sat, 19 Aug 2000 21:15:26 +0200 (CEST)
From:      Marius Bendiksen <mbendiks@eunet.no>
To:        "Robert S. Sciuk" <rob@controlq.com>
Cc:        freebsd-sparc@FreeBSD.ORG, freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: your mail
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.05.10008192112200.43182-100000@login-1.eunet.no>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0008171016050.45559-100000@schizo.controlq.com>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> If FreeBSD migrates to additional architectures, how much of its
> `goodness' will translate directly to other platforms??  Moreover, how
> much future effort and talent will be diverted into porting efforts rather
> than single platform perfection??  One must always trade off optimal
> platform performance for the sake of portability!

The issue here is also how many platforms, and what kind, you port to.
Porting to the UltraSPARC is different from trying to backport to a 6502
with a ram extender.

> I'd love FreeBSD on Sparc, and PA-RISC for that matter -- just not at the
> expense of the single best Intel based OS I've yet to encounter!!!  I am
> happy with OpenBSD and NetBSD (thought neither one is on PA-RISC yet).

Actually, I'd not mind regression on the Intel, if we gain more "high-end"
platforms from it; such as UltraSPARC and Cray.

> I look at the scalability efforts going on in the FreeBSD kernel as a case
> in point, removing the GBL and threading and wonder just how much of that
> will translate directly to other architectures??  Would this effort have

SMPng work will, if I understand it correctly, benefit all architectures
when committed to the tree.

> started at all if the talented individuals working on it were busy porting
> to platform X??  No doubt at the end of this project, FreeBSD on Intel

Different individuals have different areas of competence.

> should beat the living pants off of NT and Linux on the scability side of
> the equation.

And Linux would've won on portability.

The Intel platform would seem to be dying, and we'd do well to port to
better platforms. Our alpha code is ages cleaner than the x86 code, at
least.

Marius



To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-arch" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?Pine.BSF.4.05.10008192112200.43182-100000>