I should elaborate...
The grid shoudl be based on "if you bought it today". Those that have supercomputers already won't care about the price/FLOP. Those that would find the report the most usefull would be groups looking to invest in a new supercomputer, and it's misleading for that.
THat's the big question. IF theywere, then it's an obvious win for macs. But something tells me that they aren't.
(note the dates for the athlons are OLD by a year or more than the "freshly upgraded" G5*s.)
Anyone care to adjust the system prices based on equivilant date costs for the whitebox systems and re-calculate that table? I'd be interested to see how close the athlon64 CPUs come now.
Lies, damned lies and statistics.....
XEN will be faster than UML by far.
You can use a lopack file for a unprived domain's disk.
each domain is 100% separate from the other. They use the VBD frontend/backend drivers to communicate between each other for disk IO and VIF for network.
Or if you wanted to run different distros. Or if you wanted to isolate virtual server kernels from each other since it HAS been known to have a kernel flaw that let a jail/vserver into the other vservers.
From a security standpoint, I wouldn't sell virtual servers like vserver. It's just asking to get your ass handed to you by a hacker in my experience. 8-P
With xen, even if you get a root comprimise, or a kernel comprimise, the individual domains are isolated from each other in such a way as to prevent one from interfering with another.
You miss the point of Xen.
It's not to provide yet another full virtualization machine, rather to explore the possibility of bringing the big iron ability to partition hardware to the x86 class of hardware (which doens't have any real support for partitioning at the bios or hardware level).
Xen is good for slicing up a machine into discreete chunks for each domain(you call it a virtual machine).
It works well for taking a large machien at the best price/performance point and running it as multiple machines.Not for running multiple OS on your home computer.
Home users probably won't get much from Xen.:)
You rae right, it isn't a vmware replacement because vmware uses full virtualization to run the guest OS with the obligatory performance penalties.
With xen, we are talking about partitioning out x86 hardware that doesn't directly support partitioning.
It's not a question of "running under". It's a question of will the hardware support it.:)
The individual domains don't care, nor do they know what os, flavor, etc each other runs. All they care about is the virtual block and interface devices that theyneed to talk to the disks and network interfaces.
So yeah, you could run a 64bit linux for a 64 bit amd as domain0 and a 32bit linux for domain1.
yoiu should go look at the xenoboot project at the same web server as Xen's homepage.:) There are several more very interesting projects there that I think you will drool over.
Me, I'm working on taking this commercial since it was so usefull for my own hosting company.:)
Actually, xen2.0 does away with the virtualization of specfic hardware. Instead a privileged domain runs drivers for your hardware directly on the hardware, thereby retaining the speed and compatibility with the systems.
That privleged domain can then export via VBD and VIF interfaces to other non-privileged domains. Thus Xen can avoid the severe overhead penalty of full virtualization, thus the term para-virtualization.:)
It really is fast compared to vmware. full virtualization simply can not compete with para-virtualization, and thus why youi must port a guest OS (called a domain) to the xeni386 hardware.:)
Heh, that is the beauty of Xen. Because the xen kernel is small, and does only a few tasks, it is far easier to make it secure at the hardware level. Because of this, running thiskind of setup really will be as secure as having multiple machines. Now I I definitly would not try this on UML or other virtual virtual server sertups like vserver. Anything that relys on an entire OS instead of a specialized kernel like xen is asking to get rooted.
There is much much more to it than this though.:) If you go read the xen faq I'm certain that you will grasp the significance of this. Xen is a whole new area of virtualized machine software.
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I should elaborate... The grid shoudl be based on "if you bought it today". Those that have supercomputers already won't care about the price/FLOP. Those that would find the report the most usefull would be groups looking to invest in a new supercomputer, and it's misleading for that.
THat's the big question. IF theywere, then it's an obvious win for macs. But something tells me that they aren't. (note the dates for the athlons are OLD by a year or more than the "freshly upgraded" G5*s.) Anyone care to adjust the system prices based on equivilant date costs for the whitebox systems and re-calculate that table? I'd be interested to see how close the athlon64 CPUs come now. Lies, damned lies and statistics.....
You misunderstand what xen is for if you think it's just for launchign another OS on your workstation. Use the right tool for the right job. :)
there is a bsd port. :)
XEN will be faster than UML by far. You can use a lopack file for a unprived domain's disk. each domain is 100% separate from the other. They use the VBD frontend/backend drivers to communicate between each other for disk IO and VIF for network.
Or if you wanted to run different distros. Or if you wanted to isolate virtual server kernels from each other since it HAS been known to have a kernel flaw that let a jail/vserver into the other vservers. From a security standpoint, I wouldn't sell virtual servers like vserver. It's just asking to get your ass handed to you by a hacker in my experience. 8-P With xen, even if you get a root comprimise, or a kernel comprimise, the individual domains are isolated from each other in such a way as to prevent one from interfering with another.
You miss the point of Xen. It's not to provide yet another full virtualization machine, rather to explore the possibility of bringing the big iron ability to partition hardware to the x86 class of hardware (which doens't have any real support for partitioning at the bios or hardware level). Xen is good for slicing up a machine into discreete chunks for each domain(you call it a virtual machine). It works well for taking a large machien at the best price/performance point and running it as multiple machines.Not for running multiple OS on your home computer. Home users probably won't get much from Xen. :)
You rae right, it isn't a vmware replacement because vmware uses full virtualization to run the guest OS with the obligatory performance penalties. With xen, we are talking about partitioning out x86 hardware that doesn't directly support partitioning.
It's not a question of "running under". It's a question of will the hardware support it. :)
The individual domains don't care, nor do they know what os, flavor, etc each other runs. All they care about is the virtual block and interface devices that theyneed to talk to the disks and network interfaces.
So yeah, you could run a 64bit linux for a 64 bit amd as domain0 and a 32bit linux for domain1.
yoiu should go look at the xenoboot project at the same web server as Xen's homepage. :) There are several more very interesting projects there that I think you will drool over.
Me, I'm working on taking this commercial since it was so usefull for my own hosting company. :)
Actually, xen2.0 does away with the virtualization of specfic hardware. Instead a privileged domain runs drivers for your hardware directly on the hardware, thereby retaining the speed and compatibility with the systems.
:)
:)
That privleged domain can then export via VBD and VIF interfaces to other non-privileged domains. Thus Xen can avoid the severe overhead penalty of full virtualization, thus the term para-virtualization.
It really is fast compared to vmware. full virtualization simply can not compete with para-virtualization, and thus why youi must port a guest OS (called a domain) to the xeni386 hardware.
Heh, that is the beauty of Xen. Because the xen kernel is small, and does only a few tasks, it is far easier to make it secure at the hardware level. Because of this, running thiskind of setup really will be as secure as having multiple machines. Now I I definitly would not try this on UML or other virtual virtual server sertups like vserver. Anything that relys on an entire OS instead of a specialized kernel like xen is asking to get rooted.
There is much much more to it than this though. :) If you go read the xen faq I'm certain that you will grasp the significance of this. Xen is a whole new area of virtualized machine software.