[OT] dual 8500

[OT] dual 8500

[Momchil 'Velco' Velikov]

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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Re: [OT] dual 8500

[Brad Boyer]

Momchil 'Velco' Velikov wrote:
> 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.

> 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
	flar@pants.nu


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Re: [OT] dual 8500

[David Riley]

Brad Boyer wrote:
> 
> Momchil 'Velco' Velikov wrote:
> > 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.

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).
 
> > 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.

-- 
--"Your mouse has been moved.  Windows 95 must be restarted for change
to take effect."

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Re: [OT] dual 8500

[Erik Winkler]

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

David Riley wrote:

> Brad Boyer wrote:
> >
> > Momchil 'Velco' Velikov wrote:
> > > 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.
>
> 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).
>
> > > 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.
>
> --
> --"Your mouse has been moved.  Windows 95 must be restarted for change
> to take effect."


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