Date: Sat, 10 May 1997 17:25:46 -0400 From: Michael Alwan <alwan@rma.edu> To: questions@freebsd.org Subject: advantages of symmetric processing Message-ID: <3.0.1.32.19970510172546.006d5f78@rma.edu>
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To anyone interested: I'm interested in a dual processor motherboard (i.e. Tyan Tomcat III Dual [original Pentium]) and symmetric multiprocessing as a way of a) increasing speed of apps under FreeBSD or WinNT b) taking advantage of falling Pentium prices (original socket 7 Pentiums without MMX) c) using my present 120 MHZ Pentium and d) allowing a relatively inexpensive upgrade path for a few years to come. On the other hand, there are other socket 7 processors like the AMD K6 with all the 32 bit optimizations, faster clock speeds, and lower prices than newer Intel stuff. The upgrade path (beyond 266 MHZ) seems unpredictable, and as far as I know, it can't be multiprocessed. Here's my question. All other things being equal (version of operating system, system bus speed, amount of ram, kernel configuration, disk speed, etc.) which runs a given app faster--symmetric multiprocessing or faster clock speeds with one processor? Compare, say, two 120 MHZ Pentiums to one 200 MHZ Pentium Pro. Do something CPU-intensive in a database. Which will come out ahead? What is the break-even point? I'm less likely to be networking or using my machine as a server and more likely to be image-processing or DTP or using a database. I haven't been researching this for long, but everything I've read seems to suggest adding a second processor doesn't increase the speed of a given operation more than 50%. There is a lot more information about the impact of cpu clock speeds, obviously because most people have one cpu. I also realize that at the rate new hardware and software is coming out, any prediction now might make no sense in 2 months. I'm just looking for the most bang for the bucks I have now. If anyone has any answers experience, or opinions, I'd be really interested. It's hard to get a straight answer from a vendor. Thanks, Michael
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