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Here come the PowerPC Linux systems

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the what-the-hell-do-you-do-with-five-cpus dept.

webslacker writes "A company called Total Impact is announcing multiprocessor PowerPC systems using IBM's PowerPC Open Platform (POP) with Linux as its OS of choice. In fact, their short press release states that their base model config will be a 5 processor box, and that they've even gotten a 128 processor system running under the MacOS. " five cpus?! Sweeeet.

2 of 86 comments (clear)

  1. Not only are PPCs fast... by RevDigger · · Score: 3
    PPC systems - modest one to four processor systems - would be such sweet servers:
    • Yes, they are indeed very fast
    • G4s are designed with SMP in mind, and future revisions are looking at just putting multiple cores on one chip
    • They are cool...as in, you don't need cryogenic cooling to keep em from melting. A heat sink covers it.
    • they are tiny, so you don't need a sledge hammer to squish them into a 1 or 2 U rack case
    • They are low power
    • The archetecture actually still has a future, it's not crammed with legacy BS
    • Real RISC
    • They are not Intel
    And as a bonus for developing open boards, the BSDs already have ports, and linux already has a port. I am so ready for this.

    - H

  2. What's really bad about x86 by RallyDriver · · Score: 3

    The problem with the x86 architecture is not being big-endian (several RISC chips do both) it's the fact that's it's a crappy asymmetric*, CISC, strictly 32-bit and below design. Current Pentiums and friends use a 32-bit RISC core, with microcode to implement the x86 instruction set, bringing them full circle to the early 1970's and things like IBM 370 and VAX. Yuck.

    The only reason self-respecting Linux / *BSD / Be fans dirty their desks with such badly architected technology is that the Windows PC revolution has made the price/performance ratio of the hardware second to none. Architecturally nice though UltraSparc might be, I'm fscked if I'll pay US$3.5K for a 350MHz Ultra 5 with IDE, SDRAM and other PC-component technology when I can get a 500MHz Pentium for $1.2K (and falling) that is more or less the same performance. It's all about mass production.

    Yes, Sun have missed the point with their latest workstation offerings.

    Despite the design effort being poured in by Intel, AMD and others, I expect the gap between Intel x86 and RISC to widen as x86 becomes increasingly crippled by backward compatibility.

    Panic not though - Linux is already up and running on all the major RISC architectures, including the much delayed IA-64. With multi-platform use well established, it is well poised to take advantage of any new CPU that comes along.

    I too would like to see an increase in the availability of RISC cpu's on PC ATX form factor motherboards, with PCI and AGP, etc.

    * in the use of registers - each of the 16 registers in the x86 works with a different subset of the instructions, in contrast to typical modern CPU's where there are typically 32 registers, all fully interchangeable. This feature makes it easier to write good optimising compilers.