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Mandrake To Support AMD's Hammer
ruiner writes "Mandrake has announced their intention to support AMD's Hammer with a 64 bit version optimized for the new CPU. Redhat is also rumored to be following Suse's lead. 'This new generation of AMD Athlon and AMD Opteron processors is extremely exciting. A version of Mandrake Linux dedicated to these powerful 64-bit processors can certainly accelerate MandrakeSoft's growing adoption in the Linux corporate market' said Jacques Le Marois, CEO of MandrakeSoft."
I am confused..
What will be the Intel spin on 64-bit is better then 32? He he..
<^>_<(ô ô)>_<^>
from the hammer-time-joke-goes-here dept.
Followed by a press release from AMD and mandrake saying "can't touch this!"
Right, this is definitely offtopic, but why is MandrakeForum *never* the first to reveal this kind of thing? I switched to Debian for different reasons, but it has always amazed me that the community site for Mdk users is seemingly the last to have this information.
Given that Mdk is an avowedly newbie-oriented distro, one would think that the company would have a clear interest in getting this out to its 'channels', to the party faithful, *first*.
========================================
Death will come, and will have your eyes
-- Pavese
I'm not knocking Hammer, but why does everyone act like the Itanium and Hammer versions of Linux are the first 64 bit versions? I was running 64 bit Linux several years ago on my Multia!
Once you have GCC that will compile for the target arch, and you have the needed changes to Linux to support that arch, why is it more than bunch of builds to get a 64 bit version? Many (perhaps even most) apps are now 64 bit clean (unlike certain other criminal OS's).
Why does everyone ignore the MIPS and Alpha versions?
(and OT: When will a MIPS version of Linux with full support for the extra hardware in an Indy come out?)
www.eFax.com are spammers
For those who don't know, because its very unclear from the article, Suse was the first (or at least before Mandrake) linux distro to announce Hammer support.
Check it out here
-Spyky
Why do they allways use the word "exciting". Do they copy and paste from each other?
When his defense asked, "Which computer has Jon Johansen trespassed upon?" the answer was: "His own."
You could just download it now for Itanium processors.
"MandrakeSoft announces the availability of the Release Candidate of Mandrake Linux 8.1 for Intel Itanium Architecture. The Itanium 64-bit architecture is used for servers and computers which run highly demanding business applications, such as large database, ERM/CRM applications or advanced computing."
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
I'm sorry if I'm being a bit dense here, but nowhere in this message can I find anything suggesting RedHat is going forward with x86-64.
All I see is a (good) suggestion for altering the current set of RedHat install CDs to allow for processor-specific optimisations in the kernel/system binaries. There is mention of how this would carry through into x86-64 support, but this is just a suggestion from someone outside RedHat.
"In my values, freedom is more important than 'serving users' in a mere practical sense." -- RMS
Linux is mature enough so that manufactures like those, (AMD, INTEL and other bigs) should themselfs start to buld support and not wait to the Linux boudles companies to do so. Organize teams like they have with MS to build the processor focused on the software and not the opposite.
We had so manu troubles with ATHALON and the INTEL similar to instal RH amd Mandrake that it was almost tempting to change to a less powerfull machine.
------I can please only one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either.------
Why does Mandrkae have to crow about something that is actually being developed by Linus, Ingo and others?
I'm absolutely sure that Debian will also support AMD's Sledgehammer and so will Slackware and Redhat and SuSE.
What also bugs me is the security advisories from all these companies....it sounds like they are doing the work (for example in the case of Apache's fix, it came from Apache and all the distro's just need to have one consolidated announcement saying LINUX rather than Mandrake/SuSE/etc)
I'm going to get modded down for this, but I'll go ahead and say it anyways:
In the past, kernel development has quickly caught on to newer, more powerful processors and features...MTRR (I know what MTRR is thank you very much...), 3D Now instructions, etc. Why the need for official support? And AMD is also going along with this Palladium thing? If you ask me, there's a lot of companies grandiloquently talking up promised "corporate partnerships" that I don't see happening. I mean come on, folks, all AMD has to do is release some rudamentary specs and the kernel team can get right on it.
I'm wary of "features" that require support from the entire OS and not the kernel...
Slashdot: Where people pretend to be twice as smart as they really are by behaving like children.
The entire reason for this post is to see how many people gripe when I mis-spell Atheleon.
Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.
FreeBSD already announced report for x86-64 architecture a long time ago.
Ok, so they're going to support this new platform. That's great, but:
Does "support" mean "put out a press release and then recompile all our packages once the kernel and gcc people do all the work"?
If they're not contributing this is just a bullshit attention-grabbing publicity stunt.
--- this comment is presented in WIDE SCREEN STEREO!!!
I think the simple answer to this question is that no one cares about MIPS or the Alpha. Both platforms are now dead. They died because they were too expensive, and didn't provide sufficient performance increases over current 32-bit processors. Hell, as far as I understand it, Only IBM latest PowerPC processor outperforms the fastest Pentium 4's and Athlon processors.
Now, 64-bit processors will be affordable for everyone but the super rich, and they will natively run all the programs used by 98% of computer users. Thats sweet.
I mean, talking about the Alpha? Who the hell uses that. That has been dead for years!! It was dead as soon as Compaq bought DEC. MIPS?? Hmm, outside of my Casio PDA and my Nintendo 64, I don't think I have ever even seen a MIPS machine. If you had said you were running an RS/6000 in your crib I would feel a little sympathy. Of course, AIX doesn't cut it for you.
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at least do it right! Its Athalon!
To provide customers with a powerful, scalable 64-bit Linux distribution with native 32-bit compatibility-
Atadena, Paris - June 27, 2002, MandrakeSoft today announced they are cooperating with AMD to port Mandrake Linux to the forthcoming eighth-generation AMD AthlonTM and AMD OpteronTM processor-based platforms.
Delivering on its commitment to innovative development in the Linux arena, the MandrakeSoft research and development team has begun work on adapting the Mandrake Linux operating system to run optimally on the upcoming AMD processors.
AMD is collaborating with MandrakeSoft to ensure rapid porting and commercial availability of Mandrake Linux for 64-bit AMD Athlon and AMD Opteron processors. AMD Athlon and AMD Opteron processors, based on x86-64 technology, have been designed to support large, intensive workloads providing high-performance solutions for desktops, workstations and servers. The new processors can benefit customers by providing 64-bit application support, while also offering optimized, native support for 32-bit Linux applications to provide a smooth transition from a 32-bit to a 64-bit environment.
"This new generation of AMD Athlon and AMD Opteron processors is extremely exciting. A version of Mandrake Linux dedicated to these powerful 64-bit processors can certainly accelerate MandrakeSoft's growing adoption in the Linux corporate market" said Jacques Le Marois, CEO of MandrakeSoft.
"The 64-bit version of Mandrake Linux optimized for the upcoming eighth-generation AMD Athlon and AMD Opteron processors can provide enterprise customers with a powerful, reliable and easy to install and use Linux distribution", said Robert Stead, Director of European Marketing, AMD.
Mandrake Linux 9.x for the upcoming 64-bit AMD Athlon and AMD Opteron processors is expected to be commercially available by the beginning of 2003.
About Mandrake Linux
Mandrake Linux is a powerful operating system that is available for the Intel Pentium®, AMD Athlon®, and PowerPC® processors. Mandrake Linux includes many graphical administration assistants & wizards that make it intuitive and fun to use while providing all the power and robustness of other Linux systems. Hundreds of included applications make it an ideal solution for both enterprises and individual users. Mandrake Linux is seen as the most feature-rich, multi-purpose Linux operating system ever made available.
About MandrakeSoft
MandrakeSoft provides a trusted interface between users of information technology and open source developers. The company offers its enterprise, government and educational customers a set of GNU Linux and Open-Source software and related services, and user-friendly and highly competitive information technologies. In addition, MandrakeSoft offers technologists committed to open software and courseware a trusted channel to offer their services.
The company has technologists in over 20 countries, and is traded on Paris Euronext Marche Libre (Euroclear code: 4477.PA; Reuters code: MAKE.PA) and the US OTC market (stock symbol MDKFF). "Born on the Internet'' in late 1998, MandrakeSoft has established headquarters in the U.S.A., Montreal, England and France. Please visit the Web site, http://www.mandrakesoft.com for more information.
About the AMD OpteronTM Processor
The AMD Opteron processor is based on AMD's eighth-generation processor core which is planned to mark the introduction of the industry's first x86-64 technology. This technology is planned to preserve companies' investments in 32-bit applications while allowing a seamless transition to 64-bit computing as those companies require.
The AMD Opteron processor is designed to deliver high-performance server and workstation solutions for today's most demanding enterprise applications. The processor is designed to be scalable, reliable and compatible, which can result in lower total cost of ownership. Key AMD Opteron processor innovations include an integrated memory controller, which reduces memory bottlenecks, and HyperTransport(TM) technology, which increases overall performance by removing or reducing I/O bottlenecks, increasing bandwidth and reducing latency.
About AMD
AMD is a global supplier of integrated circuits for the personal and networked computer and communications markets with manufacturing facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Asia. AMD, a Fortune 500 and Standard & Poor's 500 company, produces microprocessors, Flash memory devices, and support circuitry for communications and networking applications. Founded in 1969 and based in Sunnyvale, California, AMD had revenues of $3.9 billion in 2001. (NYSE: AMD - News).
NOTE: Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, AMD Athlon, AMD Opteron, and combinations thereof, and AMD-8151 are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. HyperTransport is a trademark of the HyperTransport Technology Consortium. Mandrake and Mandrake Linux are trademarks of MandrakeSoft. All other trademarks and copyrights are owned by their respective companies.
I've heard lots of bad stuff about the x86 architecture...
hacks upon hacks...
Do any of these new 64 bit processors offer a way out?
Is backward compatability with 8086, 286, 386 (sx and dx), 486(sx and dx), 586, 686 now trivial, or solved with a (long term low significance cost to benifit ratio)?
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IIRC, it is only the AltiVec unit that is 128 bit in them.
while true; do eject; eject -t; done
It always appeared to me that Nandrake/Suse was most strongly targeted at the desktop, while redhat maintained the most alignment with the server market.
A serious comitment by Mandrake/Suse to the server market my be pulling mandrake in too many directions at once.
-Chris
--an unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys--
Mandrake needs to make the 64-bit version a more server-friendly design....and make it less desktop-ish....for now.... I mean, Mandrake's great in that I can get any member of my family to install linux or config their system or whatever with it, but it needs to "cut the fat" that comes with it being an all-inclusive desktop OS.....of course that's just my opinion...I could be wrong...
Furthermore, the G4 is not really a 64 bit processor. The biggest difference between 32 bit and true 64 bit processors is that 64 bit processors use 64 bit pointers.
Apple puts out some nice hardware and software, but they are rarely the first with anything and they don't really do much research anymore either.
... So rumour has it it will start KDE in less than a minute. :) </old joke>.
___
Cogito cogito, ergo cogito sum.
Talk about how people say MIPS and Alpha is dead (just a little trolling) - who honestly uses or knows of someone using a 386 anymore.
Why don't all distro companiesstart atleast compiling for 486 and also have at the least a distro that is compiled entirely for, say 586 (like Mandrake).
I don't understand why companies like RedHat (who make a great solid modern distro) don't make available for the more modern processors a distro optimized for it.
Why sacrafice new technology (speed) for the old and thus making the new run at the speeds of the old?
Also, FYI.. Athlon MP processors were used to make Episode II... not too shabby, for a 32-bit processor.
a tion/ 0,,30_118_756_759^566~31514,00.html
AMD Technology Used for Production in Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jun 27, 2002 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- AMD (AMD) today announced its collaboration with JAK Films and Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), a division of Lucas Digital Ltd. LLC, in the production of "Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones".
JAK Films used AMD Athlon(TM) MP processor-based workstations in its labs to advance the art of cinema storyboarding through digital pre-visualization. ILM used a high-performance cluster of AMD Athlon MP processor-based servers designed and manufactured by RackSaver.
"Our goal was to paint an accurate picture of what `Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones' would look like long before filming was even started," said Dan Gregoire, director of the pre-visualization lab, JAK Films. "Our AMD Athlon MP processor-based systems are ideal for running the powerful software we rely upon."
"Given the challenge of producing top quality visual imagery in a compressed time frame, we really appreciate the performance boost we got with our AMD Athlon MP processor-based systems," said Michael Kiernan, Manager of Systems R&D at ILM.
"We at RackSaver, with our expertise in design and manufacturing of high-density, high-performance computing clusters, are excited to have met the critical computing demands required in the production of `Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones,'" said David Driggers, CEO RackSaver.
"George Lucas is admired for the many technical advances he has contributed to the film industry. The innovative AMD technology used by ILM and JAK Films is no exception, " said Ed Ellett, vice-president of product marketing for AMD's Computation Products Group. "JAK Films pre-visualized literally every scene in `Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones,' which helped Lucas translate his vision to the big screen with exceptional accuracy. ILM is widely recognized in the film industry as a standard-bearer in visual effects and digital animation."
Customers using systems based on powerful AMD Athlon MP processors can experience tremendous productivity, and fast turnaround time on a variety of graphically intensive tasks ranging from creating complex special effects sequences to manipulating video, audio content and high resolution still images.
Note: For additional information about AMD's involvement in the production of "Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones" please visit: http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInform
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Wanna cookie?
Why sit around and wait for somebody else to compile the images for you? Use a source based disto dammit, one that grabs the source to your system and then compiles it. As other people commented before, most linux apps are allready 64bit ready. Because most needs to be compileable on MIPS/ALPHA/SPARC platforms.
GCC(and binutils) supports compiling to x86-64 , this is still experimental though. But searching/looking abit in the mailinglist archives @ x86-64.org show that stuff like qt allready are comiling fine, only needing a wee-change in the makefile(Link).I think thats quite impressive, and im willing to bet good money that GCC has production class x86-64 support by the time the processor is actually available to buy.
So, armed with gcc and a version of Gentoo, Linux From Scratch or any other sourcebased disto that supports compiling the entire system from scratch. You will beable to create/compile your very own system, which can be WAY more optimized that anything a vendor does(i cant really see how its possible for a precompiled kernel images cant be optimized to a system).
The the only bad thing about thiese kinda of disto s is that big large packages as x/gnome/openoffice/what-ever takes for ever to compile. But on 64bit processor, who cares =)
They're not crowing about the fact that they can compile for these systems, they're crowing about the fact that they are going to compile for these systems, and support them. Since compiling code into working binaries and supporting those binaries is what Mandrake does, I think they're justified in crowing about this. As a big AMD fan, I applaud Mandrake for this, even though I use and support Debian myself.
Slackware and Redhat and SuSE may or may not support this platform directly, I don't know. It's certainly not guaranteed. There are plenty of platforms they don't support, even though they could. It's probably going to depend on whether they think they can make enough money off of it.
And yes, Debian will almost certainly support the Hammer as soon as we get our hands on some. But then we're insane, and support everything we can. Who else still supports m68k and ARM? Who else is _adding_ support for HPPA and Super8? We do it because it's fun, not because we're trying to make money.
(As for the thing about security advisories, that's a bit off-topic, but I will say that Debian's security list is intended for Debian's users, so that they know when officially supported packages are available, and it's not our fault that bugtraq decided to subscribe to our list. Complain to bugtraq if it bothers you that much.)
>'A version of Mandrake Linux dedicated to these powerful
>64-bit processors can certainly accelerate MandrakeSoft's
>growing adoption in the Linux corporate market' said
>Jacques Le Marois, CEO of MandrakeSoft.
*swat* Bad CEO! Bad, bad! AMD is not doing very well in the corporate market. PHBs just don't like it. Sure, the grunts that take care of the machines like it, but they (we) just don't have the pull when it comes to writing a check. Imagine this conversation:
Me:"Hey boss, if we went with Corp_PC-A instead of Corp_PC-B, we would save about $200 per computer!"
Boss:"Really? What's the difference between the two?"
Me:"Corp_PC-B uses an AMD processor instead of an Intel."
Boss:"Whoa, now. The processor is pretty important, right? I don't think that we want to skimp there. We better 'go long' on the processor and trim the fat on memory and disk space. Oh, and stick a Trident video card in there for good measure! Silly hacker, what do you know about corporate responsibility. Go fix me turkey pot pie!"
OK, a little creative leeway. The point is that Intel has the aura of a rock-solid performer, while AMD has a hacker/gamer hippie case-modder feel.
Besides, AMD lost it's underdog luster to me when they struck a deal with Microsoft to testify on their behalf for an endorsement.
Matthew
In or near St. Louis? Hire me
/. finds me to be 20% Troll, 80% Funny
This, and some other advantages of compiling from source, make this distro much faster than any other I've tried.
The install process is definitely not for the inexperienced, so your point about precompiled distros still applies, but once it is installed, it is very easy to administrate, and one of the first to get new security packages (I woke up after OpenSSH 3.4 was released and typed 'emerge rsync openssh' and it was installed).
Sorry to come across as yet another offtopic smug evangelising gentoo user... I guess I am :P</rant>
Free Java games for your phone: Tontie, Sokoban
I understand that compatability is good for migration...
I've heard the most bad things about BIOS and bus, and other aspects... not just the x86 processors...
When will it be worthwhile to start getting rid of the not used stuff?
Are they keeping the short word instructions doing what they did, or are they making them do more usefull stuff...
(I suppose you could have a single instruction perform multiple operations... one that is old spec and one that is new spec.
Maybe I am considering something to be a problem that isn't...
but as the instruction set increases, don't we have to have more bits to to describe the instruction?... Now I am realising that memory addressing is the big benefit for larger... bus width?
Also, how much faster are natively compiled for transmeta applications than those that go through the instruction conversion caching? (I think thats a way of putting it)
Thank you for your discourse, I am attempting to learn stuff from this conversation.
</cow>
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How many users there are business/IT managers?
Get your Unix fortune now!
Didn't I read somewhere that the AMD Opteron will be able to run both 32 and 64 bit applications, whereas the Intel counterpart will only run 64 bit? This is in response to:
"This technology is planned to preserve companies' investments in 32-bit applications while allowing a seamless transition to 64-bit computing as those companies require."
So, does this mean that something like Mandrake 8, that I am running now (with Mozilla build 2002061108, aka 1.1a) will run on the Opteron? I'm asking this in this thread as it appears some of you know quite a bit about these new processors, and might like to give us some information;-)
Rapidweather's Linux Screenshots.
You can easily find DEC Personal Work Stations (PWS) in 433, 500 and 600MHz speeds for cheap on ebay (they're also known as "Miatas"). These machines are common. I got mine for under $600 a few years ago and it's been great as a workstation and a server.
That and my awesome digital Server 3300R (a rack-mount 400MHz hot-swap alpha I got for $600 on ebay) have run SuSE, Red Hat and are now happily running the latest FreeBSD.
Stop complaining you can't affort it. YOU CAN!
99.99% of what I run will be much more effecent with 32 bit ints than 64 bit ints. At work we use 64 bit sparcs and they can run in 32 bit mode. They are slightly faster for what we do in 32 bit mode than 64 bit mode.
I don't think most businesses will ever go to 64 bit because its just the wrong step. Most code that will get any speed advantage out of 64 bits will get more advanatge out of 256 bit but thats an insane amount of data to push around for task swaps.
About the only thing that hits the 64 bit sweet spot is database access and disk access routines but in reality they do thouse calcualtions so seldom, that they lose the advanatges with task swaping in most cases. You can do an 32 bit add with carry into another 32 bit add about 400 times faster than you can dump the extra bits on the stack.
If you look at the high speed database base benchmarks, most of them are running on systems where the register stacks don't ever get out of the cache if even out of the register windows (as in Sparc)
With the pc server market no longer subsidising that fastest machines, the gamer market (and super computer field) are all thats left and those markets aren't interesting enough for most compaines to spend billions in R&D.
Yeah, I was just thinking that as I read this article. I thought, "Debian supports every practical platform and then some... whats the big news about some other Linux distro supporting a non x86 platform?"
For those that want to experiment with a auto-hardware detecting graphical user-friendly installer for Debian should try the new (this is a beta release!!! be careful) Progeny Graphical Installer ISO images. This installer is based on the now defunct Progeny Linux installer. Good Linux software doesn't drop dead, but instead gets reincarnated.
Remember, Debian is not commercial and is purely community based. Helping beta test this new installer on all sorts of various systems will help.
You should reread the post that you just called ignorant. He mentions that Mandrake comes compiled for the Pentium and wonders why everybody doesn't do the same thing.
That which does not kill me only makes me whinier
PowerPC is the instruction set. Power4 is IBM's most recent implementation. Motorola's G3s and G4s are also PowerPC chips, with an aditional SIMD extention (AltiVec).
This is not a political statement. This is not legal advice. It's a frick'n Slasdot post. However: I'm Running For
There is a common misunderstanding here about PowerPC chips. For a technical paper from the IBM Watson facility on the Power4 architecture, read here.
This research paper clearly indicates that the Power4 processor utilizes the 64-bit extensions of outlined by the original PowerPC consortium. It also indicates that The Power4 refers more to the architecture of processor interconnects than the processor itself. Since the days of IBM writing OS/2, they have always rightly believed multiprocessing and multithreading provides the best performance.
IBM did the vast majority of the work on the PowerPC processor, and owns the name to it. The reason Motorola processors are now called G* is because they do not own the rights to the title. The G3 was to be the PowerPC 670 proccessor as I recall. In all honesty, I amazed that people here think the G3 is not a PowerPC processor. How ludicrous is that? It was a pain apple's ass to get people to dump the 68k series in 1993, could you imagine what would have happened if a whole new archicture was used only five years later with the first G3? Apple would be out of business.
I only wish I had the links on current benchmarks to refute the lunacy that the antiquated DEC Alpha is still the fastest processor but oh well.
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Well, it all depends on just which applications you use and how patient you are.
:> ). Unfortunately BOTH of my sticks of memory have gone bad, and guess what, I'm back on the old 450MHz system and boy does it ever seem SLOW! (trust me, I'm checking FedEx's website on an almost hourly basis to see how far my replacement sticks have made it!). Now, I'll be the first to admit, I'm VERY impatient when it comes to computers, however I think that a lot of other people would find that if they actually tried using a somewhat faster system, they would feel that the ugprade is worthwhile. Other people who are more patient or possibly just use less processor/ram intensive applications (the memory access speeds of PPros is quite poor, and the memory access speed of Pentiums is terrible as compared to modern systems, not to mention those also have butt-slow cache, so it's not just procesor-intensive apps that are faster on new systems).
A while back, I was using a K6-III+ 450MHz system with 192MB of RAM, and this seemed pretty speedy (the K6-III was a very speedy chip for all non-gaming type applications). But then I set up a new system for a friend of mine, and used it for a week before I dropped it off to her. It was only a 750MHz Duron with 256MB of memory, but the difference in performance was VERY noticeable to me. Browsing and reading e-mail was MUCH snappier. I also suddenly realized just how often my usenet reader paused for half a second or so, and how much quicker and easier using this program seemed on the faster system. Programs started up much quicker. Now, some may write this off to just differences in hard drive speed, but really they were using nearly identical drives (the K6-III+ had one of the infamous IBM 75GXP drive (knock on wood, still working great), while the Duron had an IBM 60GXP drive, slightly faster, but only by about 5% or so). Once I gave that system to my friend and went back to my "slow" 450MHz system, I found myself getting rather impatient with a lot of programs (particularly web browsers, mainly Mozilla and occasionally IE or Konqueror). Before long, I was looking into an upgrade.
I eventually got an Athlon 1700+ with 512MB of DDR SDRAM, and let me tell you, it's quick (for today at least!
Still, all that being said, if it came down to a choice between broadband and a decently fast computer, I'd take broadband any day. They'll have to pry my cable modem from my cold dead fingers dammit! Fortunately for me, this isn't an issue since broadband is cheaper then any dial-up I could ever find around here. Dial-up is definitely in it's dying days in Canada (more then half of Internet connections are now broadband).
Of course SuSE supports this platform. Those who follow these kind of things know that it was SuSE who added Hammer support to the official Linux kernel at the start of this year. See here
All -- that LEAP-CF post is mine. That is not a "rumor" but just my "recommendation" to RedHat. Nothing more.
-- Bryan "TheBS" Smith
Independent Author, Consultant and Trainer
MTRR == Memory Type Range Register
/proc/mtrr.
Used to set different policy (uncacheable, write-back, write-combing) to address ranges. Eg, for address ranges that correspond to PCI addresses (ie memory mapped IO addresses), by setting these ranges to write-combining the CPU will try to gather writes up into big writes to make most efficient use of IO bus bandwidth. (ie get higher MB/s out of your AGP or PCI - important for graphics).
see linux/Documentation/mtrr.txt and
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AMD Hammer/Opteron is completely IA32 (ie normal 32bit x86) compatible - all IA32 OSes boot on it, it has a standard IA32 BIOS, applications will run fine on it. If you run a x86-64 OS, then you will be able to run both 32bit and 64bit x86-64 software (side by side).
/guess/)
/emulated/ in silicon and hence slow
c le.pl?sid=02/06/26/0116225
Ie x86-64 is:
- IA32 (8086 mode et al too - i
- standard IA32 BIOS
- additional x86-64 mode
Apparently 32-bit Linux and Windows booted almost first time on early silicon, and they've had absolutely no 32bit compatibility problems - it all works. then it took just a week for AMD to get linux to boot into x86-64 mode (iirc from the talk linked below).
IA64 / Itanium on the other hand is a completely new architecture:
- completely different instruction set
- completely different ABI
- new weird "look it does everything" BIOS (EFI)
- IA32 is
There's a good talk by an AMD engineer on the AMD Hammer arch. given at the recent kernel summit at:
http://ksmp3rep.sf.net/KSMP3s/amd64.mp3
found amongst other kernel summit talks at:
http://linuxkernel.foundries.sourceforge.net/arti
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Itanium is /not/ RISC. Go read up on VLIW (Very Long Instruction Word), which is what Itanium is. (as is the Transmeta Crusoe silicon).
I use Friend/Foe + mod-point modifiers as a karma/reputation system.
http://saveie6.com/
I've got one.
I call it OpenBSD and it runs great. Take a 486 with 16+ megs of ram (32 is nice) and you've got all of that.
No, it's not Linux, but it does have those good security defaults you asked for.
I'm currently running two 486's as firewalls for my DSL line and I feel very confident that I'm locked down and secure here. When I need an Apache, Samba, Perl, PHP, or MySQL (never used Postgres) server I've got another 486 in the DMZ (between the two firewalls) that I muck with and viola! All that on less that 500MB per machine.
It would be nice to see a Linux distro that installs as easily and with as much usability as OpenBSD does. Until that day my servers keep running OpenBSD. If you haven't tried it, do so, you'll like it once you got over the shock that there is no GUI installer and the documentation is actually consistant.
I couldn't recommend diving into the mailing lists until you've read the FAQ on the OpenBSD.org site. It's almost all there.
Happy serving!
Apache-AdvancedExtranetServer = Mandrakesoft
http://www.netcraft.com/Survey/Reports/0205/
- Apache is not linux distribution only
- Microsoft-IIS the name say it all
- Zeus is not a distribution
- Netscape-Enterprise is not a distribution
- unknown your guess is as good as mine
- Rapidsite is unix
- Webstar Built for Mac OS X and not a distribution
- thttpd ACME-brand Unix software
- Tigershark custom Unix Web server not a linux distribution
- ConcentricHost-Ashurbanipal I dont get info on this but I dont think its a distribution
I would happily downgrade to my old p166 for broadband in an instant. If you pirate oops I mean sure mp3's all day long then the connection is the most important bottleneck in regards to performance. Infact many new portable discplayers like the sony I am using now easily has enough cpu power to decode mp3's. Hell, even a 486 could has enough power to do it. However your 200mhz system is useless for video games and quite painfull under linux when you actually need to compile anything. I remember waiting for 45 minutes to compile one of the 2.2 kernels. My current system ( pIII700) can compile the bigger 2.4 kernels in around 20-25 minutes and I played with an athlonXP1800 which could do it in around 5 minutes. My guess is your system would take at least an hour if not more to compile just the more recent 2.4 linux kernels. Unless your happy playind doom1 and doom2 and quake my guess is that your system is quite useless for anything modern besides playing cards. Go to asus's website and find a local reseller for a cheap AMD duron motherboard or an intel celeron motherboard if you are worried your powersupply could cause problems. You can get a great cpu/mobo combo for like $160. Add another $125 for 256 megs of DDram. Then buy a pny el-cheapo geforce3mx for like $70. Whats great about the newer motherboards is that they will fit in your case. So for $350 you could have a brand new computer that will play quakeIII, run kde and gnome fine in Linux and you will still have money left over for broadband. I never buy new computers anymore. I just build them.
I am in an interesting diloma myself. I want to try gentoo Linux which compiles all your apps automatically when you have a dependency problem. This would be a big royal pain in the ass with my old pIII700 when I have gigs and gigs of apps installed. So I am looking for an athlonMP2000 dual cpu system which would make me cream in my pants. The problem? Money. How often would I do a gentoo style "emerge world"? About maybe once a month. But I need to buy a new car and money problems are hurting me. So thinking wisely I will only upgrade modestly and just do an "emerge world" at night. So I know exactly how you feel. Life sucks but we have to make smart choices and use what we have.
http://saveie6.com/
Ever tried Slackware?
And yes, I have tried OpenBSD.
It was NetBSD support that was announced a little over a year ago. Should be in the /. archives, and see also this link and more recently this one
With AMD's announcement that they will be supporting the DRM push by building in DRM features into CPUs / motherboards, I wonder how long can the Linux community tolerate (and contribute to) their AMD Hammer architecture.l > & gt;
Surely these hardware embedded cyber-cops will require closed-source, patented drivers and will dissolve the usefullness of the GPL and Linux.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/25905.htm
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/25891.html
Isn't it time to do something about this now?
Do we really trust AMD to do the right thing, or will they take advantage of Open Source developers right until the last nail is hammered into our coffin and then run all the way to the bank?
HINT: AMD is an American for-profit corporation.