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Linux on multiple processors?

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michael alan dorman

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Sep 20, 1994, 9:38:02 AM9/20/94
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I was wondering if this has been considered as a possible development
goal, now that the Intel multiprocessing hardware spec has been
standardized?

I know that MP (and specifically SMP) is sort of "trendy" these days
(vis. NT and OS/2 SMP), but the particular application for which I am
considering using Linux as a platform (dialin Internet host, web server,
fairly high volume) seems to me to be one for which SMP might give
good results--or at least make it easier to stave off the purchase of
a second machine.

So is this being considered, or at least batted around as a possibility?

Or has it already been hashed out and discarded? I refuse to think that
it hasn't occured to anyone but me.

Mike.

Alan Cox

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Sep 22, 1994, 5:21:27 AM9/22/94
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In article <35mojq$t...@sundog.tiac.net> mdo...@mallet.tiac.net (michael alan dorman) writes:
>considering using Linux as a platform (dialin Internet host, web server,
>fairly high volume) seems to me to be one for which SMP might give
>good results--or at least make it easier to stave off the purchase of
>a second machine.

For a web server which does spread easily between machines a pile of old
386SX's with 2-4Mb of RAM is very cost effective for the job.

Alan


--
..-----------,,----------------------------,,----------------------------,,
// Alan Cox // iia...@www.linux.org.uk // GW4PTS@GB7SWN.#45.GBR.EU //
``----------'`----------------------------'`----------------------------''

Jeff Kesselman

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Sep 24, 1994, 2:53:08 AM9/24/94
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In article <35mojq$t...@sundog.tiac.net>, michael alan dorman
<mdo...@mallet.tiac.net> wrote: >I was wondering if this has been
that >it hasn't occured to anyone but me. > >Mike. > If this interests
you, you may want to look for papers published about the Crystal and Topaz
projects at UW-MAdison in the mid to late 80's. The goal of those
projects was to design a workable extension to UNIX for reasonably
transparent multi-processing. The work was done on a matrix of VAX
processors (each machine could see its 4 matrix neighbors.)

Jeff Kesselman

Alan Cox

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Sep 26, 1994, 8:49:49 AM9/26/94
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In article <1994Sep20....@golem.greenie.muc.de> an...@golem.greenie.muc.de (Andi Kleen) writes:
>: I know that MP (and specifically SMP) is sort of "trendy" these days

>: (vis. NT and OS/2 SMP), but the particular application for which I am
>: considering using Linux as a platform (dialin Internet host, web server,
>: fairly high volume) seems to me to be one for which SMP might give
>: good results--or at least make it easier to stave off the purchase of
>: a second machine.
>: So is this being considered, or at least batted around as a possibility?
>The HURD (the GNU OS) will (or is planing to) support multiprocessing
>(through the Mach-kernel)

For Linux doing none to smart (initially) SMP is being played with at the
concept level here (pending possible hardware donations). Some other people
'viper' are working on making the Linux kernel truely threaded but that is
a much bigger project.

Corey Sweeney

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Sep 28, 1994, 6:49:17 PM9/28/94
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iia...@iifeak.swan.ac.uk (Alan Cox) writes:


While this is in the concept stage I might as well propose a time-saving step.
How about adding multi-processor support to hurd. By the time the
multi-processor support is ready, one could reasonably assume that hurd would
have the linux server ready.

Actually i see a assumption with my own plan, that might not be true. If we
run linux as a server under mach in hurd, and we add multi-processor support to
hurd, does that mean that linux would be multi-processor? i'm assuming so.

Corey Sweeney
co...@bbs.xnet.com

Kevin K. Lewis

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Sep 30, 1994, 4:13:28 PM9/30/94
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In article <corey...@bbs.xnet.com> co...@bbs.xnet.com (Corey Sweeney) writes:

While this is in the concept stage I might as well propose a time-saving step.
How about adding multi-processor support to hurd. By the time the
multi-processor support is ready, one could reasonably assume that hurd would
have the linux server ready.

Actually i see a assumption with my own plan, that might not be true. If we
run linux as a server under mach in hurd, and we add multi-processor support to
hurd, does that mean that linux would be multi-processor? i'm assuming so.

From what I know, the Hurd is supposed to support multi-processor
platforms, "out of the box". I think that's one of the primary
purposes of the project, ie scalability.

Corey Sweeney
co...@bbs.xnet.com
--
Kevin K. Lewis | My opinions may be unreasonable
lew...@aud.alcatel.com | but such is the voice of inspiration

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