On Tue, Feb 05, 2002 at 11:11:35PM +0100, Wojciech Puchar wrote:
> >
> > I've been using NetBSD for a number of years as a hobbiest,
> > but I just was asked to setup a *nix system at work to do some bench
> > marking.  The hardware I have is a compaq DL380 with 4 procs and a
> > SmartStart Raid controller.  I found the Raid controller in the hardware
> > compatibility list, but I couldnt find any info on multi-proc support in
> > NetBSD.
> 
> in -current it will possibly work
> 
> >
> > I was asked to run it on Linux at first, but I was unable to locate drivers for the
> > Raid controllers, so I'm hoping I can run this on more familiar
> >territory.
> >
> 
> at high load generated by hundreds or more processes, especially when it
> will be joint CPU and disk (and net) load, NetBSD should win without any
> problems (unless it is not well configured).
> 
> linux could possibly win in TCP transfer speed with one process.

Once again, Wojtek, you're ready -- no, actually, downright *eager* -- to
offer advice on a subject you don't actually know anything about.

SMP in NetBSD is currently "giant lock"; only one process can execute in the
kernel (e.g. perform I/O) at a time.  Though SMP in Linux sucks in many ways,
it does not *always* suck in *this* way.  So, when you recommend using
NetBSD in preference to Linux for I/O intensive configurations on a
multiprocessor, you're giving pretty bogus advice.

-- 
 Thor Lancelot Simon	                                      tls@rek.tjls.com
   But as he knew no bad language, he had called him all the names of common
 objects that he could think of, and had screamed: "You lamp!  You towel!  You
 plate!" and so on.              --Sigmund Freud