On the topic,
Does anyone know if the new Phenom (Quad core AMD brand) chips will
have the same power stepping issues as the X2 AMD chips do? Are any of
the newer AMD X2 chip revisions going to fix this issue?
There is an issue with the AMDs TSC register that won't be fixed in the
current generation of chips. So, the general suggestion was to stay
away from purchasing the current AMD X2 procesors since they will
probably never support power management. The Intels are the ones that
are getting the attention with regards to power management, since, if I
understand the issue correctly, they do not have the problem. If the
newer AMD X2 chips fix this, the story may change. See Casper's
response attached.
-LSA
Attached: Casper's message on 06/13/2007 09:58 AM
> >any ideas if in the future we could see powernowd supporting AMD X2
or Opteron dual core systems ?
"Never" would be my best guess, for current hardware.
The reason is that Solaris is heavily dependent on the TSC register
and expects the value of different CPUs to be in sync to a certain
degree (fixed difference).
Unfortunately, with the current Dual Core AMD CPUs, the TSC register
varies with the clock frequencies; you can see in the current powernow
code that it goes through some pretty hairy loops to "make it right"
(much to the chagrin of DTrace which bypasses the standard calls and
can't be "made right" using a loadable kernel module)
Solaris will shortly support clock switching on Intel Core-duo CPUs;
but no clock switching at all on AMD CPUs until newer CPUs are out.
Casper
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ken mays wrote:
> By the way,
>
> I should mention the newer 3-GHz Intel X6850 quad-processor before the sun
> goes down on my little part of the world. That may be the current contender
> for the AMD Phenom.
>
> ~ Ken
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: ken mays <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: Dennis Clarke <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Andrew Watkins <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Cc: [email protected]
> Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 6:40:56 PM
> Subject: Re: [osol-discuss] Will OpenSolaris work on a intel desktop Quad
> processor
>
> Dennis,
>
> The 8-core single processor market dominates. You also have the new Quad-core
> AMD Phenom which will be officially out soon and the Intel Q6700 processor. A
> dual Quad-Core processor server will be a very nice machine for someone with
> the use.
>
> As my wallet bursts into flames, I'd look into those Quad processors for
> commodity sake...
>
> ~ Ken
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Dennis Clarke <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: Andrew Watkins <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Cc: [email protected]
> Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 9:37:27 AM
> Subject: Re: [osol-discuss] Will OpenSolaris work on a intel desktop Quad
> processor
>
>
>> I am finally biting the bullet and ditching my work machine - a 9 year
>> old Ultra 10 - for a new system I thought I would go for the fastest cpu
>> on the market.
>
> At the risk of getting into endless loops of debates about "fast" I just
> have to ask why you think that is the fastest processor in the market?
>
> When you get it .. run the Radiance benchmark which is heavy number
> crunching and then we shall see. Thus far no one and nothing can touch an
> AMD Opteron running Solaris 10.
>
> see : http://www.blastwave.org/articles/BLS-0059/index.html
>
>
> Dennis
>
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