Re: Idle question about multi-core processors

["Jonas Trollvik" <jontro@xxxxxxxxx>]

Speaking of that,
How long do you think it will be until the BGL can be removed from the
largest subsystems and we will see the real benefit on SMP systems in
DragonFly?
-Jonas

On 12/1/06, Matthew Dillon <dillon@apollo.backplane.com> wrote:
> :> In any case, it looks to me like the mass-market may be supporting SMP
> :> mobo's much sooner than I suspected.  And, I suspect that DragonFly may
> :> provide much better performance on SMP hardware than many other OS's.
> :
> :I thought dual-core was SMP, was that wrong of me?
> :
> :--
> :Erik Wikström
>
>    It is SMP, definitely.  If one were to ask the question... how many
>    cpu's is enough?  The answer is probably around four for any general
>    purpose computer.
>
>    The biggest advantage a GPU has is its ability to process work in
>    parallel, either with parallel processing elements or with pipelined
>    elements.  Because of this a GPU can do far more work then a CPU
>    within the bounds of its capabilities.
>
>    GPU makers have recently started trying to incorporate general purpose
>    computing elements into GPUs, but I think this effort is going to be
>    fairly short lived as consumer computers start to get more cores.  My
>    guess is that GPUs will evolve better GPU<->CPU ABIs instead and most
>    of the supervisory workload will shift back to the CPUs.  Pretty soon
>    game makers will be able to *rely* on consumer machines having 2 or more
>    cores in them.  There won't be any more single-core consumer machines
>    two years from now.
>
>                                        -Matt
>                                        Matthew Dillon
>                                        <dillon@backplane.com>