[CentOS] CentOS 4.4 smp on Dual Quad Core Xeon

[Joshua Baker-LePain]

On Mon, 26 Feb 2007 at 7:55am, Johnny Hughes wrote

> On Mon, 2007-02-26 at 08:44 -0500, Joshua Baker-LePain wrote:
>> On Mon, 26 Feb 2007 at 7:40am, Johnny Hughes wrote
>>
>>> OK ... is it a:
>>>
>>> Quad Processor (4 physical processors) Dual Core Xeon ...
>>>
>>> or
>>>
>>> Dual Processor (2 physical processors) Quad Core Xeon ...
>>>
>>> I have never heard if a "Quad Core" processor in production ... it might
>>> be there, I could have missed it.
>>
>> E.g.:
>>
>> http://www.siliconmechanics.com/i8665/Quad-Core-Xeon.php
>>
>> In the CPU pull down menu you'll see both dual core and quad core Xeons.
>
> Someone what to send me some of those so I can test kernel modules on
> them :P

Heh.  Be careful what you wish for.  Keep in mind those 8 cores *still* 
share a single memory controller.  In my testing, my Xeon 5160s are a 
*lot* better than the old P4 based Xeons at memory intensive code (i.e. 
they show contention less readily).  But I do have some code that brings 
them to their knees when run across all 4 cores in a system (whereas dual 
core Opterons continue merrily along).  Running said code across 8 cores 
with one path to memory would be painful.

Things ought to get *real* interesting when AMD's quad cores come out...

-- 
Joshua Baker-LePain
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Duke University