Re: -RS/6000

["Kamal R Prasad" <kamalrpr%in.ibm.com@localhost>]

can some one tell me what is the effort reqd to port netbsd  onto POWER
based systems?
are there end-users who would like to see that happen?
thanks
-kamal

----- Forwarded by Kamal R Prasad/India/IBM on 03/28/2003 10:36 AM -----
                                                                                
                        
                      Jochen Kunz                                               
                        
                      <jkunz@unixag-kl.        To:       Kamal R 
Prasad/India/IBM@IBMIN                 
                      fh-kl.de>                cc:                              
                        
                                               Subject:  Re: -RS/6000           
                        
                      03/27/2003 06:13                                          
                        
                      PM                                                        
                        
                                                                                
                        
                                                                                
                        



On 2003.03.27 14:10 Kamal R Prasad wrote:

> I have access to 43P-100
NetBSD should run on this. (The installer does not work correct, but
once the system is installed it is very stable.)

> as well as POWER based systems.
> what is the effort reqd to port it to POWER based systems?
I don't know enough about POWER and its relation to PowerPC. This can be
everything from fast and simple to complex and very time consuming. Ask
on port-powerpc%netbsd.org.@localhost There are the gurus who have the knowledge
to give you a better answer.

> will it find any end-users?
I am sure it will. There are many RS6k machines out there and many
people who like NetBSD.

> how mnay processors does netbsd scale to?
I think it has the same limits as every SMP implementation with a big
kernel lock. So, depending on the task you have to do, the practical
limit is from 4 to 8. It may run on more CPUs, but this would be
inefficient. This is no limit in NetBSD, it is a systematic limit in SMP
systems. You need a different architecture for more CPUs. Somthing like
a cluster (RS/6000 SP, VAX/Alpha with OpenVMS or Tru64-Unix,
Linux-MOSIX) or NUMA (Sequent Dynix, SGI IRIX).
--


tschüß,
       Jochen

Homepage: http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/