Re: [openMosix-general] CPU requirements

[Deadpan110 <dea...@gm...>]

Depending on the type of cluster you are setting up, certain choices
can cause certain problems down the line.

Although openMosix will be quite happy running on any CPU, you should
also consider the compilation architecture specified for your distro.

For all round cluster goodness using other opensource clustering
technologies, you will find that things will start to break if
different machines' software is compiled for differing architectures
(i386,i586, i686, em64t and amd64), along with different versions of
gcc etc.

Using CHOST as a guide, you can spot if the extras within a CPU will
be wasted or not.

ie

CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" for a AMD Athlon(64 bit) X2 Dual Core Processor

and your current P4's are

CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" for a Intel Pentium 4 CPU XXXXMHz

will ultimately mean, for interoperability, that the new dual core
64bit machine will have to be CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" too.

This results in not being able to optimise the software on the amd64
machine to it's full extent.

openMosix clusters are "single-system image", which means that the
software on the systems only know about their own home node, and
therefore cannot, reliably, change their behaviour depending on what
architecture machine they happen to have migrated to.

For a rough guide on what system will run with what, check:
http://gentoo-wiki.com/Safe_Cflags
even though its written for gentoo users, it gives you more than
enough information.

I hope this helps your decision a little.


Martin

Thanks also to Daniel "Fremen" Llewellyn for cleaning up some of the above.



On 24/06/06, Dirk Eddelbuettel <ed...@de...> wrote:
>
> On 24 June 2006 at 09:56, Pierre Fortier wrote:
> | I successfully ran openmosix (clusterknoppix) on 2 computers: 2GHz Pentium 4
> |
> | and 1.4GHz Pentium 4.
> |
> | I would like to buy a new computer to run openmosix (clusterknoppix). Are
> | there any CPU requirements? More specifically, does it run only on Pentium 4
> |
> | computers or does it also run on
> |         Pentium D?
> |         Pentium Xeon?
> |         AMD Athlon?
> |         AMD Opteron?
> | Furthermore, must it be single CPU computers or can it be
> |         dual (2 CPUs)?
> |         quatro ( 4 CPUs)?
>
> openMosix will run on all 32-bit Intel x86 compatible processors running in
> 32 bit mode, including the 64-bit opterons __provided they run in 32bit
> mode__. Multi-core is no problem but rather an advantage -- looks like SMP to
> Linux.
>
> My current work box is a dual-cpu dual-core opteron running in 32bit
> mode. Looks like 4 cpus to the OS. Very nice with 'make -j 4'. No oM on it
> though.
>
> Dirk
>
> --
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>                                                   -- Thomas A. Edison
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