> P-Pro CPUs dropping fast, these would make a nice SMP box (6 200Mhz
> processors would make a nice server, or in my case, a good test for parallel
> algorythms that use a large number of threads).
Let me suggest something different. Buy a pile of cheap celerons and 100Mbit
cards. Then you can try and make your algorithms massively parallel instead
> Now, the 2 questions. Is a 512K cache on the CPU going to make a significant
> difference versus 256K cache. I can see how more cache means less memory bus
On a PPro it may help. But if you are worried about memory bandwidth a ppro
isnt a good option anyway by modern standards
> access and less bus contention to memory, but if these caches get cleared
> pretty often on an SMP machine, then it may not make much difference. Any
> thoughts?
We dont flush caches on task switches and we dont flush caches on cross cpu
invalidated (just the TLB is flushed in general, sometimes specific pages)
> Second thought, if I add in a PCI USB card, and run a kernel that supports
> USB, can I run the keyboard and mouse off USB and not bother with the
> "serial" card. The USB card may be cheaper than the serial/keyboard/mouse
Possibly - if it will boot that way. You may well not get USB bios emulation
unless you have a card with roms on it and stuff.
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