From owner-freebsd-smp Mon Apr 28 10:55:55 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id KAA27699 for smp-outgoing; Mon, 28 Apr 1997 10:55:55 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mx.serv.net (mx.serv.net [199.201.191.10]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id KAA27690 for ; Mon, 28 Apr 1997 10:55:52 -0700 (PDT) Received: from MindBender.serv.net by mx.serv.net (8.7.5/SERV Revision: 2.30) id KAA13927; Mon, 28 Apr 1997 10:55:31 -0700 (PDT) Received: from localhost.HeadCandy.com (michaelv@localhost.HeadCandy.com [127.0.0.1]) by MindBender.serv.net (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id KAA28971; Mon, 28 Apr 1997 10:54:07 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199704281754.KAA28971@MindBender.serv.net> X-Authentication-Warning: MindBender.serv.net: Host michaelv@localhost.HeadCandy.com [127.0.0.1] didn't use HELO protocol To: Narvi cc: smp@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Quad Pro 150 motherboard? In-reply-to: Your message of Mon, 28 Apr 97 12:04:34 +0300. Date: Mon, 28 Apr 1997 10:53:55 -0700 From: "Michael L. VanLoon -- HeadCandy.com" Sender: owner-smp@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk >> >a 4 or 6 CPU P6 board for *other* than a large server...think about that >> >for a few minutes. >> >(hint: NT4 Workstation can't handle more than 2CPUs and that is the most >> >popular commercial SMP-capable OS) >> Bullshit. >Well, at least 2 of the 2 NT workstations installed from 2 different CD-s >claim they are capable of upto 2 proc-s. I haven't also seen in any place >a reference that says otherwise. That's because your _license_ restricts you to no more than two processors. I've seen NT run on up to 8-way Pentium and Pentium Pro, and DEC Alpha, boxes. We use 4-way Alphas and Compaq's all over the place at work. There's nothing inherent in the design of NT that restricts it even to 8-way. It's just that's the most I've seen it run on, and NT isn't really designed to run optimally on massively parallel designs. Sequent, for example, has some proprietary patches to the NT kernel which enable it to run efficiently on their up-to-32 processor (as far as I know up to 32 -- I'm not a Sequent expert) Intel-based "mini-main-frames". This coupled with the fact that, as far as I know (and it's not very far), there isn't a standard for multi-processor design, for Intel chips, that goes beyond four processors. So anything bigger would be somewhat proprietary and require specific support code. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael L. VanLoon michaelv@MindBender.serv.net --< Free your mind and your machine -- NetBSD free un*x >-- NetBSD working ports: 386+PC, Mac 68k, Amiga, Atari 68k, HP300, Sun3, Sun4/4c/4m, DEC MIPS, DEC Alpha, PC532, VAX, MVME68k, arm32... NetBSD ports in progress: PICA, others... -----------------------------------------------------------------------------