Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Gentoo/PPC64 Beta Live CDs Released

Posted by timothy on from the lest-your-hardware-go-unemployed dept.

pvdabeel writes "Gentoo/PPC developer, IBM employee and former PPC64 kernel maintainer Tom Gall has announced beta-level live CDs and stages for ppc64. The hardware supported by gentoo-ppc64 is PowerMacintosh G5, IBM pSeries, older IBM 64 bit RS/6000s (such as the model 260, 270, F80, H80, see linuxppc64.org for a complete list) and soon IBM iSeries hardware. Gentoo-ppc64 is the other side of the ppc equation, it is a 64-bit kernel as well as a 64 bit user space. We are the first linux distribution to offer a 64-bit top-to-bottom solution which is not a toy environment. This is a significant and exciting step as there is interest in cluster computing circles, users of java, and more generally those who have needs of large address spaces. It's fairly exciting to be on the forefront and continue to push the capabilities of linux on ppc64 forward."

4 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. Re:NOT the first full 64 bit by agent+dero · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Apple never advertised fastest computer, they clearly said the 'first 64-bit/fastest personal computer ever'

    in that sense they are right, Sun, Alpha never made PC's.

    And depending on who's benchmarks you look at, they are the fastest pc's.

    --
    Error 407 - No creative sig found
  2. Now if IBM had something comparable to a G5 system by Zetta+Matrix · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I don't quite understand why IBM doesn't want to create something like a G5, only "more serious". I'm sure the pSeries machines are excellent, but if they could just lower the price a bit by dropping some of the enterprise features that drive the price up, they could sell quite a lot of them. For people like myself, it's a chance to use a superior architecture in a not-quite-so-proprietary setting (Apple hardware is very proprietary in some areas). We could benefit from the commodity market for all the standardized components and interconnects (DDR RAM, SATA, PCI-X, PCI Express, AGP, USB, IEEE 1394, whatever) without being forced to buy Apple hardware or pay the MS tax. Commodized G5 system running an open source operating system like Linux or *BSD... that's where it's at.

    I know I would like to buy such a machine for myself, and try to convince my employer to buy one for me...

  3. Re:NOT the first full 64 bit by jmauro · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Windows NT on Alpha ran in 32-bit mode. It didn't take advatnage of any of the 64-bitness of the Alphas.

  4. Re:Now if IBM had something comparable to a G5 sys by HalfFlat · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If the G5s had support for ECC memory, then we could use them for modelling without taking a gamble that a flipped bit screws the results.

    When days of computation go into making a calculation, the last thing you want to do is to run it again because there's a non-negligable chance that there was an uncaught bit error.

    Luckily Apple have since seen the light and the new Xserve G5 at least supports ECC RAM. Before that, for affordable scientific computing, dual Opteron machines had no real competition.