Subject: Re: MP Duh's
To: D. E. Evans <sinuhe@xmission.com>
From: David Maxwell <david@vex.net>
List: port-i386
Date: 02/09/2003 19:05:04
On Sun, Feb 09, 2003 at 05:01:36PM -0700, D. E. Evans wrote:
> Quoting "Ricardo Ryoiti S. Junior" <suga@netbsd.com.br>:
> > 	Having a dual 1GHz machine does not mean that programs 
> will
> > run as
> > if they were on a 2Ghz processor, but you can run two
> > programs/threads/processes (or n * (number of processors)) as
> > if they had
> > the CPU at 1ghz only for them (of course, efficiency is not
> > 100%).
> > 	When compiling something with make, use make -j 4 and 
> open
> > top to see what's happening. Your system will fork 4 compiling
> > tasks,
> > should be much faster.
> 
> How does this compare with the HT 3.06 from Intel?  From your 
> description, it sounds like NetBSD would handle this chip 
> through the MP kernel?

NetBSD has already been tested on such machines, and as per the HT spec,
the kernel sees two (logical) processors.

The scheduler hasn't been improved to know about HT yet, so there are
some bad worst case scenarios, but they probably aren't an issue in
general use.

-- 
David Maxwell, david@vex.net|david@maxwell.net --> Although some of you out
there might find a microwave oven controlled by a Unix system an attractive
idea, controlling a microwave oven is easily accomplished with the smallest
of microcontrollers. - Russ Hersch - (Microcontroller primer and FAQ)