On 17/11/2007, William Kucharski <William.Kucharski at sun.com> wrote: > Ken Mays wrote: > > Somehow I think we should be looking at server grade technology in > > order > > to go forwards. This means technology with multiple processors also. > > > > I was thinking : > > > > BladeCenter S Express Model 8886E1U > > $4,499.00 > > Unfortunately, pursuing a port to POWER is somewhat different from porting to > PowerPC. The two architectures are not precisely the same, though they of > course share the same DNA. > > The biggest issue surrounding a port to the POWER4, POWER5 or POWER6 or the > PPC > 970MP is that they're multi-core CPUs and/or are typically used in > multiprocessor configurations. This poses a notable difficulty in that no > current implementation of Solaris runs on a multi-core or multiprocessor > system > with a weakly-ordered memory architecture. > > For example, on SPARC, Solaris runs in TSO mode (while Linux runs in RMO.)
For those of us that weren't aware of this subtle difference, there is a great article here: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8212 -- Shawn Walker, Software and Systems Analyst http://binarycrusader.blogspot.com/ "We don't have enough parallel universes to allow all uses of all junction types--in the absence of quantum computing the combinatorics are not in our favor..." --Larry Wall
