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Peter Humphrey <peter@××××××××××××××.org> posted |
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200805251240.17699.peter@××××××××××××××.org, excerpted below, on Sun, 25 |
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May 2008 12:40:17 +0100: |
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|
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> I was poking around in my BIOS this morning and rediscovered a setting |
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> to define the installed OS. I'd wondered about it some time ago and then |
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> forgotten about it. |
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> |
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> I can set the BIOS setting "OS Installation" to "Other" or to "64bit |
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> Linux 2.6.9". I have it set to Other at the moment. My questions are: |
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> what effect this setting is likely to have, and whether it's really |
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> specific to the version. |
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> |
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> This is a Supermicro H8DCE motherboard with dual Opteron 246s and 4GB |
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> RAM in four banks, two connected to each CPU. |
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> |
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> I've tried Google but found nothing. |
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|
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Hmm... The most apropos thing I could find with Linux 2.6.9 was that it |
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introduced AMD dual-core support. This of course assumes that your board |
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is upgradable to dual-cores or that's obviously /not/ what it's |
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referencing. Anyway, Opteron 246s are still single-cores, so if that's |
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it, the setting probably won't matter to you at this point. However, if |
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you upgrade to dual-cores, you may wish to try toggling that setting |
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along with your kernel config updates turning on multi-core support, or |
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it's likely not to work quite as efficiently. |
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|
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I'm guessing the alternative presents the cores as separate CPUs, less |
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confusing for the OS if it didn't know about multi-cores, but not as |
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efficient scheduling as you'd get with the kernel's multi-core scheduling |
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support, which with multi-core scheduling enabled, knows they are on the |
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same chip and thus that it costs less to transfer a job from one core to |
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the other than to a core on another chip. |
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|
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I'm not sure about it, but the more I think about it, the more likely |
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that possibility seems to me. If that's not it, it's sure a good fit for |
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the bit we /do/ know, that (1) the option is 64-bit related (the option |
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says so), that (2) it's a kernel 2.6.9 change (the option says so), that |
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(3) it's Linux specific (the option says so), that (4) it's an AMD |
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system, and that (5) the matching kernel (2+3) added support for the |
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matching brand (4) and that it was 64-bit related (1). If that's a |
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simply coincidental set of matches, it's VERY coincidental. |
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|
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-- |
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Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs. |
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"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master -- |
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and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman |
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|
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-- |
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gentoo-amd64@l.g.o mailing list |