Date: Mon, 3 Sep 2001 20:19:46 +1000 From: "Moran, Chris" <cmoran@emergent.com.au> To: <freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: FreeBSD and Athlon Processors Message-ID: <02e101c13461$f7dcf690$1400a8c0@lengdesk> References: <200109010033.f810XaT08748@saturn.cs.uml.edu>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
This might be a dumb question, but if a fix exists in the linux world, should there not be code available? If so, could this code be integrated (by someone far more skillful than yours truly) into a future release? Cheers, ----- Original Message ----- From: "Albert D. Cahalan" <acahalan@cs.uml.edu> To: <erik@math.smsu.edu> Cc: <freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG> Sent: Saturday, September 01, 2001 10:33 AM Subject: Re: FreeBSD and Athlon Processors > > Erik Greenwald writes: > > [Erik Greenwald too] > > >> I'm using both of those (iwill kk266) with a thunderbird 850, and > >> haven't had problems in fbsd. Linux flakes out a bit when I tell > >> it I have a k7 processor, so I told it I have a k6 and it works fine. > > > > sorry, this thread was supposed to stay in -stable, > > Well, since it didn't, I might as well explain the problem here too. > There are at least two major problems with VIA chips: > > Any fast PCI device (often IDE) can cause data corruption. > VIA initially blamed this on a specific sound card that would > push the bus pretty hard, then offered a Windows hack that > would disable some performance features. After some trouble > finding a contact at VIA, Linux got the same hack. If you > don't have this hack... well maybe you just got lucky or did > not notice that your data is getting trashed. (with FreeBSD's > small user base, a data corruption problem like this one > might go unnoticed for a while) > > If the CPU pushes the memory bus too hard, stuff goes wrong. > This was first noticed with some Athlon-specific assembly code > in the Linux kernel. The problem has also been seen by Windows > users running Photoshop. Sometimes the problem goes away if you > upgrade to a very large power supply. AMD has been having some > trouble running their new core on VIA motherboards; maybe the > new core hits the same problem on unoptimized code. > > So problems will be less common with an OS that doesn't push > the hardware very hard, but do you really want to trust this > junky product? Maybe next year you will upgrade to a new gcc > that generates code that is fast enough to trigger a problem, > or you will install a gigabit network card that is aggressive > with the PCI bus. Don't upgrade that CPU next year either. > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?02e101c13461$f7dcf690$1400a8c0>