dual 8500
Hi, folks.
Does anyone of you have any experience (either good or bad) with PowerMac 8500 with dual-processor card and Linux ?
I intend to obtain one, but I definitely want to run Linux on it. I don't care much if MacOS doesn't work on such a machine.
Sorry for the off-topic and best regards,
-velco
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Quoted 2 lines · Momchil 'Velco' Velikov
Does anyone of you have any experience (either good or bad) with PowerMac 8500 with dual-processor card and Linux ?
I have both good and bad experiences with dual processor cards, although I was using a 7600. When it works, it is wonderful, but it occasionally gets confused in interesting ways. It seems to be very sensitive to everything, and I had to rearrange the RAM in the slots to get Linux to work. It somtimes requires the MacOS extensions to load to reinitialize stuff if it crashes in a bad state. It will make Linux much faster, tho. I replaced a 132MHz 604 board with a dual 200MHz 604e one and it was a very nice change.
Quoted 3 lines
I intend to obtain one, but I definitely want to run Linux on it. I don't care much if MacOS doesn't work on such a machine.
They work fine in the MacOS, but you won't see much improvement on most things.
Brad Boyer
[email protected]
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Quoted 5 lines · Brad Boyer
Quoted 2 lines · Momchil 'Velco' Velikov
Does anyone of you have any experience (either good or bad) with PowerMac 8500 with dual-processor card and Linux ?
Quoted 8 lines
I have both good and bad experiences with dual processor cards, although I was using a 7600. When it works, it is wonderful, but it occasionally gets confused in interesting ways. It seems to be very sensitive to everything, and I had to rearrange the RAM in the slots to get Linux to work. It somtimes requires the MacOS extensions to load to reinitialize stuff if it crashes in a bad state. It will make Linux much faster, tho. I replaced a 132MHz 604 board with a dual 200MHz 604e one and it was a very nice change.
Oh yes, there is something you should know. When you install the MP card, you WILL want to interleave your RAM. You'll want to do it anyways, because the PowerPC is able to do double-bandwidth bursts if you interleave identically sized dimms. On linux, since the OS runs both the processors in an efficient manner (unlike the MacOS) this is more or less required for an MP card. On the MacOS, it will result mostly in a speed boost (this includes single processors, too).
Quoted 6 lines
Quoted 3 lines
I intend to obtain one, but I definitely want to run Linux on it. I don't care much if MacOS doesn't work on such a machine.
They work fine in the MacOS, but you won't see much improvement on most things.
In general, the MP cards work better on the MacOS than in linux (most things do, because almost everything in linux is still more or less under development). However, only recent versions of the OS even take advantage of MP cards, and the only MP-enhanced program that I know of is Photoshop.
Signature · 4 lines
--"Your mouse has been moved. Windows 95 must be restarted for change to take effect." ** Sent via the linuxppc-dev mail list. See http://lists.linuxppc.org/
I used a dual-180 Daystar card in my 8500 and it worked great. Yes, the memory interleaving did help a lot under Linux as David notes below. You'll want to get an SMP kernel from ftp://borg.mit.edu/pub/linux/ppc/kernels/multiprocessor/ and then compile your own at some point. These kernels worked for me.
Erik
Quoted 36 lines · David Riley
Quoted 5 lines · Brad Boyer
Quoted 2 lines · Momchil 'Velco' Velikov
Does anyone of you have any experience (either good or bad) with PowerMac 8500 with dual-processor card and Linux ?
Quoted 8 lines
I have both good and bad experiences with dual processor cards, although I was using a 7600. When it works, it is wonderful, but it occasionally gets confused in interesting ways. It seems to be very sensitive to everything, and I had to rearrange the RAM in the slots to get Linux to work. It somtimes requires the MacOS extensions to load to reinitialize stuff if it crashes in a bad state. It will make Linux much faster, tho. I replaced a 132MHz 604 board with a dual 200MHz 604e one and it was a very nice change.
Oh yes, there is something you should know. When you install the MP card, you WILL want to interleave your RAM. You'll want to do it anyways, because the PowerPC is able to do double-bandwidth bursts if you interleave identically sized dimms. On linux, since the OS runs both the processors in an efficient manner (unlike the MacOS) this is more or less required for an MP card. On the MacOS, it will result mostly in a speed boost (this includes single processors, too).
Quoted 6 lines
Quoted 3 lines
I intend to obtain one, but I definitely want to run Linux on it. I don't care much if MacOS doesn't work on such a machine.
They work fine in the MacOS, but you won't see much improvement on most things.
In general, the MP cards work better on the MacOS than in linux (most things do, because almost everything in linux is still more or less under development). However, only recent versions of the OS even take advantage of MP cards, and the only MP-enhanced program that I know of is Photoshop.
Quoted 3 lines
--
--"Your mouse has been moved. Windows 95 must be restarted for change to take effect."
** Sent via the linuxppc-dev mail list. See http://lists.linuxppc.org/