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An Interesting Boot Log On Alpha

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the Who-says-Linux-is-not-scalable? dept.

Here is an interesting Boot log on an Alpha. What is so interesting about this boot log? Nothing special, just that this Alpha's got 31 Processors, 256GB RAM -- looks VERY impressive. I wouldn't mind having one of those beasts at work *drooling all over*. Oh, and it compiles the kernel very fast :)

15 of 244 comments (clear)

  1. This machine is so fast... by matija · · Score: 4

    It can play an hour's worth of MP3s in 78 seconds.

    (and execute an infinite loop in less than 3.5 minutes)

    --
    Duct tape + WD40 => DevOps
  2. My boot log has one thing in common... by Mignon · · Score: 5
    It does my heart good to see, among all the messages for high-tech stuff,

    ttyS00 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A

    All I need is another 255.8725 GB, another 29 processors, another 7 LAN cards, and I'm right there!

    1. Re:My boot log has one thing in common... by mihalis · · Score: 4

      It would be nice to do a rebel linux install on our Sun Enterprise 10ks (we have quite a few). Only trouble would be disguising what was going on :

      You don't need to see my bootlog (waves hand).

      These aren't the cpus you're looking for (waves hand)

      You can go about your business (waves hand)

      Move along.

  3. Behold it. Touch it. Lick it. by SoupIsGood+Food · · Score: 5

    At one of my jobs, I was in the computer room of a Vast Fianancial Company That Shall Remain Nameless. They had an IBM RS/6000 SP-2 supercomputer that filled most of one wall, 32 POWER3 processors and untold terrabytes of storage.

    I was left alone to work my mojo on a much smaller Sun server, but once I was good and certain i was alone, and that there were no cameras monitoring me, I wandered over to the supercomputer. I looked at the gray and blue tower that held the processors and RAM. It was worth $20, easy.

    I touched it, caressed the cool metal of the mesh grid over the airvents with my fingertips, feeling the warm air and the low buzz. I'd pay $100 to do that again.

    Then I licked it.

    Priceless.

    SoupIsGood Food

  4. Re:Proof of Linux' scalability... by Drakino · · Score: 4

    According to http://www.compaq.com/products/software/linux/ the high end Alpha servers don't support Linux yet. I'm sure Compaq Research has done it many times, but if it's not supported at this point, it means Compaq dosen't feel that a client needs to pay possibly millions for a server that won't perform at it's maximum capibilities when loaded with Linux. Compaq is pushing Linux big time, and it will definitly be a technical reason for it not running on a server, not a marketing decision.

  5. When I was yer age... by Speare · · Score: 5

    All the posts about "I need a towel" and "they should sell tickets just to touch it" are gonna look funny when this is just another slag heap of unusable parts.

    "Why, when I was yer age, miboy, we had to put up with using a computer. That's a complicated physically connected brick of processing components. We thought a mere 2^5 processors was worth drooling over. Yes, miboy, I know your cochlear implant has more than that. You're missing the point. This thing was tremendous! It took up a whole rack: four times the size of a grown man! And all of its memory circuits were in the same cabinet, requiring massive cooling apparatus, unlike the distributed memory crystals that people embed in their jewelry."

    Anyone still drooling over 2^5 address space on ferrite core memory? Anyone still drooling over 2^5 address lines? Or data lines?

    --
    [ .sig file not found ]
  6. I could use all 31! by d.valued · · Score: 4

    Processors 1 to 15 would work on distributed.net...

    Numbers 16 to 20 would do Seti.

    Numbers 21-29 would run Quake3, Civ:CTP, and XWS.

    Numbers 30 and 31 would run the realtime disk encryption/decryption series :)

    --
    I used to be someone else. Now I'm someone better.
    Real life is underrated.
  7. oh GOD! by -=Izzy=- · · Score: 5

    its porn for geeks! if you will excuse me... i think i need a towel now.

  8. Scalability by sql*kitten · · Score: 4
    from the Who-says-Linux-is-not-scalable? dept.

    Can anyone comment on the SMP performance linearity of the current Linux kernel on more than 4 CPUs? Did they every sort out the issues that prevented kernel socket (or was it I/O?) APIs being called concurrently by processes on multiple CPUs?

  9. Not so imp...what?? by OlympicSponsor · · Score: 4

    I did a search for "Bogo" to find the BogoMIPS and found this:

    Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS

    Feh, I thought, either Alpha's REALLY suck or (more likely) there's a bug there. Then I took a closer look:

    SMP starting up secondaries.
    Calibrating delay loop... 1493.17 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1493.17 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1493.17 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
    Calibrating delay loop... 1488.98 BogoMIPS
    SMP: Total of 31 processors activated (46170.90 BogoMIPS).

    Oh.
    --

    --
    Non-meta-modded "Overrated" mods are killing Slashdot
    (Hey Ryan! Here's your proof!)
  10. Imagine 375 GS320s running Tru64 UNIX. by Chyeburashka · · Score: 5
    Here is the link. The building to house this monster is under construction and ahead of schedule. At 16.5 KW apiece, thats over 6 MW just to power the boxes.

  11. Re:Did I miss something? by SEE · · Score: 5

    Hey, welcome to Retro-Slashdot! Back before there was all this legal coverage, back before "grits" were ever mentioned, back before moderation reached the masses, back before user customization of displayed stories, even back before the coming of the Evil One (Jon Katz) . . . THIS is an example of what Slashdot regularly did.

    Steven E. Ehrbar

  12. You mean that's it? by Froid · · Score: 4

    You used the equivalent of a megaphone on slashdot (the +1 bonus) to tell us that you like it and think it's a good thing, in only slightly more words? Did you think this was actually insightful or worthy of everyone's attention, or did you just think "I want everyone to know what I think, and though I'm not more sophisticated about my thoughts than everyone else without a +1 bonus, I'm going to go ahead and say it, because I can"?

    There is an aristocracy on slashdot; make no mistake about it. When people like drendite (userid=#3) speak, people bow down in worship, simply because of his low userid. It doesn't matter whether one actually makes a true contribution to society; what matters is the aristocratic entitlement conferred by longstanding existence (not participation).

    Take the British Parliament, for example. Though Britain still hasn't come close to providing universal healthcare or proper dentistry they sorely need, they have finally seen the folly of maintaining a ruling aristocracy, and have eliminated the hereditary seats in the House of Lords. Slashdot should follow their lead.

    The solution is not to take away the voice of people with low userids. Nor is the solution to eliminate the +1 bonus, because it serves a legitimate purpose and is democratically attainable by all, from the oldest poster to the neophyte with a five-figure userid. The solution is to eliminate the tagging of comments with the userid of their posters.

    The userid tag does nothing to help the community, and does much to harm it, by encouraging wishywashy moderators to inflate the karma of oldtimers and penalize the newguys who express controversial opinions. (When moderators waver between slamming a post or modding it up, they usually defer to the userid in addressing its seriousness and authority. This is unacceptable.)

    If you're worried about fraud and impersonation, then you already have an effective means of distinguishing between posts: the signature. The .sig is not generated by each user when he posts a comment, where he's free to forge it. It's appended by slashdot's servers. It's an effective deterrent to impersonation, and it must again receive its prominence within the social jurisprudencial realm of slashdot.

    Effective policing (moderating) can only go so far. We must correct these social ills by striking at their sources -- their causes -- not merely at their symptoms. Join with me in tearing down the illegitimate reign of the slashdot aristocracy and their petty notions of insight and imformativeness, and lift up a glorious new tomorrow, where everyone, democratically, no matter what the tld of his email address or the number of his userid, shares in the same promise of opportunity for reasoned argument and receptive audience.

    Thank you for your time.

    Froid

  13. Loving the wildfire by the+COW+OF+DOOM+(tm) · · Score: 4

    I work at DEC^H^H^HCompaq. We have one of these bad-boys in a lab, and I have to walk by it a lot. It's this fairly massive thing, the size of 3 or 4 fridges all in a row. They're bluish, and the heart of the beast is identifiable by the LED display that sits at about eye height, saying things like:
    AlphaServer GS320
    16 processors configured
     And so on. I adore it. And every once in a while, when nobody's looking..

    I give it a hug.

    Once, I was talking to a co-worker about it.
    "You know the Wildfire in the lab?" I asked.
    "The what now?" he replied. So I told him about the Wildfire. Later that day, we were walking through the lab, past it.

    He gave it a hug.

    If anyone else wants to send the wildfire a hug, let me know.

  14. Jesus H. Christ in a chicken basket! by Kernel+Monkey · · Score: 4

    I think we should hold a fund-raiser in which people would pay $20 to be able to see this thing in the flesh. $100 if you want to actually touch it.

    I'd be first in line :)