Slashdot Mirror
Boot Log Messages On A Pre-Production Processor
Check this Boot log. This is a log from the Power4 Processor which is in the pre-production stages, and since it's in the pre-production stages, they removed the BOGOMIPS value. Nevertheless - it looks very interesting. Keep up the good work, IBM!
That's one thery.
Another thery is making one CPU capable or running instrucitons from more then one stream in the same clock cycle and allowing it to choose which functional units get assigned to which thread on every clock will be faster. The Alpha 21364 designers obviously beleve in this thery, since that is how it works.
A simple thought exparament will show the multiple threads CPU is faster if it has all the functional units the multiple CPU on a die version has. Of corse if it is far simpler to put a whole bunch of CPUs on one die then to make a whole bunch of FUs for one CPU, then it might not be such a win.
Since both CPUs are due out next yearish I guess we can find out who is right then.
Personally I think the Alpha approch will win for the more common workloads we see today. But that the multi-CPU method will be far simpler to ramp up, and will win on more losely cuppled problems.
IMO, a devel box needs more space than a production box (especially in a team environment).
Bill - aka taniwha
--
Leave others their otherness. -- Aratak
- Bootlog Battle ('d00d' my bootlog consumes its own 1Gb disk')
- Uptime Follies ('What do you mean it's impossible? This machine HAS been up for 23.723243 years!!!')
- Peripheral Cramming ('It was tough making PCI-slot splitter cables so I could cram those seven Geforce cards in there, but you should see the results!')
- Megahertz Madness ('I can melt the case on my overclocked Celeron in 2.5 seconds.. and that's MOLTEN baby!')
More to come, I'm sure...-'fester
First of all... Why the hell would you want to run Mac OS X on the thing? Actually, I have to say the same about Linux unless it's drastically improved in the next year.
Hrmm... I don't know. Let me think. Could it be because we use those systems and the chip is FAST???? It's not about the marketing. It's about the raw power.
Besides, the only thing AIX is good for is giving sysadmins nightmares and giving your development team ulcers when they try to compile their code on the newest version of the OS. I swear. IBM changes their damn networking code's interfaces and function parameter data types so often you'd think they're trying to drive their customer base to suicide. There's a reason I pronounce is "Aches" sometimes. Oh, and don't get me started about SMIT and the seemingly deliberate effort to break shell scripts that run just fine across other systems by using non-standard command arguments.
Of course, IBM's attitude has always been that the standard is whatever IBM chooses it to be. Witness SNA, Microchannel, and their late forced entries into the microcomputer and personal computer markets.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
*Sigh* The POWER3 and POWER4 chips are based on the PowerPC, not the older POWER, architectures. PowerPC is the successor to the POWER ISA. The POWER3 and POWER4 are 64-bit implementations of the PowerPC ISA. In fact, the POWER3 is sometimes referred to as the PowerPC 630. Look it up on the web sometime. As an aside, the 64-bit PowerPC architecture is supposedly compatible with the 32-bit implementation. I don't honestly know what that's supposed to mean exactly, but that's what all IBM's literature claims.
Incidentally, the 601, which was used in early Macs and IBM workstations, was a transitional chip to help people move away from the POWER to the PowerPC architecture. It supported both ISAs, but later chips removed certain no longer used POWER instructions.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
First of all... Why the hell would you want to run Mac OS X on the thing? Actually, I have to say the same about Linux unless it's drastically improved in the next year.
This is a POWER processor, and it belongs in an IBM RS/6000 machine running AIX. If IBM markets like usual, there will be nothing flashy about it, and few will know of it, but it will kick the crap out of anything Sun can produce.
Also, if the clock speed is released, you must remember that it is really irrelevant for comparing POWER to x86. Why? Well, I've got these two machines sitting next to my desktop. One is a Pentium 100MHz running FreeBSD, and the other is a POWERstation 350 (41MHz POWER CPU) running AIX. A week ago, I ran a floating point benchmark, and the PS350 was faster than the P-100 (and that was with gcc, which sucks on AIX more than any other platform).
Also, AIX redefines the term "industrial strength". It's not really BSD-nix or SysV-nix, but kinda a random hack of the two, feeling more BSD, but it has really good system management tools, since it has plenty of non-standard commands for things like resizing filesystems and stuff (yes, on the fly, no rebooting).
Anyways, here's something I'm working on:
AIX Airlines
You arrive at what the map said was the airport, however
it looks a lot more like a massive industrial complex. You check
in at a counter staffed with men all wearing a black tie and white shirt
uniform. Then, you get on a tram that takes you to the terminal.
You quickly notice that AIX Airlines is flying both brand new aircraft,
and planes dating back to the 50's. When you arrive at your gate,
you notice that the aircraft is huge and painted blue. It only has
4 engines, however it is easily three times the size of a 747. You
notice workers using massive cranes loading up the aircraft with everything
from industrial equipment to parcel shipments.
You eventually board the aircraft and settle into
your seat. When looking up, you quickly notice that there is a 3-digit
numerical display where you would expect the fasten-seatbelt and no-smoking
lights. Special trucks push the aircraft away from the gate, and
help it taxi onto the runway. Then, several more vehicles and mechanics
arrive to strap on a pair of rocket boosters to the wings. You notice
that they have not yet started the engine, as the captain announces that
you have been cleared for takeoff. Then the rocket engines fire,
causing the aircraft to throttle up and take off from the runway.
At 1000 feet, the engines start up and the rockets drop away into the ocean.
The 3-digit display begins displaying seemingly random numbers,
however the stewardess is passing out the "AC/800 Aircraft Passenger
Service Manual" which describes them. Four hours later, the
captain announces that the aircraft has reached cruising altitude.
You see a guy named Smitty carrying a pile of forms from the cockpit, and
the plane suddenly throttles up to Mach 6.
AIX airlines only flies intercontinental, however
they have the lowest fares, since each flight carries 6,000 passengers,
and thousands of tons of cargo.
The BogoMIPS value is a measure of how many million times per second a processor can perform "do nothing" executions. It's measured at startup and used to tweak some timing loops in the kernel. From a marketing standpoint, however, there is absolutely nothing sexxy about publishing how good your cpu is at doing nothing.
"If one is really a superior person, the fact is likely to leak out without too much assistance" -- John Andrew Holmes
or there's this bit of drivel I picked up a couple years ago....
...
Hey, propeller heads! Have you got Unix DOWN COLD? Recompiled the kernel so many times you've got it menued and scripted? Setting speed records for setting up sendmail correctly in less than four months? Then, have we got a challenge for you! Yes, it's AIX, from those wonderful people who brought you OS/7 Ferrengi! Take the most obscure and difficult parts from both SVR4 and BSD, add in more bugs than an African termite mound, and you've got an opperating system that GUARANTEES your job. Yes, now you can have everyone in your organization frustrated and furious, and only YOU know how to make it work! More obscure commands than Novell Netware 8.8! More bloated C++ code than MSWindows 21st Century! So call the IBM division of Walt Disney Enterprises TODAY! And make sure that no one at your place of work can AFFORD to fire you! And remember, even though we work for him, WE'RE not Mickey Mouse! So look for the nerd in the blue suit and ask for AIX. You'll be glad you did!
Oh, John, I just LOVE a man who knows AIX
(Don't blame me, I didn't do it.)
Any sufficiently advanced civilization is indistinguishable from Gods.
...and IBM probably doesn't want that.
For example, if someone figured out that this pre-production chip was only running at a measly 1GHz, the next day there'd be a huge story on news.com about how the chip was "below expectations" or some other BS.
And even if it weren't a joke, the original post was *about a bootlog*. I personally don't care about the bootlog; I think it was dumb to post the original story (but you know what opinions are like...everyone's got one. :^)
So, moderators: how is posting a bootlog on a story about bootlogs off topic?
Stating on Slashdot that I like cheese since 1997.