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Conference nlfdc::linux-users

Title:Linux, the Free Operating System
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Moderator:EST::DEEGAN
Created:Fri Feb 11 1994
Last Modified:Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:609
Total number of notes:2862

596.0. "Can Linux be installed on a 500a Workstation?" by NNTPD::"utz@allvax.enet.dec.com" (James Utz) Tue Apr 29 1997 22:22

A customer wants to install Linux on a Personal Workstation 500a.
Is this possible?  Is there any place I can send him for support
from Digital?

Thanks,
James
utz@allvax.enet.dec.com
ALLVAX::UTZ

[Posted by WWW Notes gateway]
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name		DateLines
596.1NEWVAX::PAVLICEKLinux: the PC O/S that isn't PCWed Apr 30 1997 00:188
    I doubt you'll find much in the official "support from Digital" arena.
    There are a number of Linux support services in the world -- some of
    them might offer Linux/Alpha support.
    
    I can't answer the question about the PW500a.  Perhaps someone else
    can.
    
    -- Russ
596.2Someone says it worksNEWVAX::PAVLICEKLinux: the PC O/S that isn't PCWed Apr 30 1997 07:2760
    I found this on the internet, FWIW.
    
    -- Russ
    
    
Re: Cache and performance (was Re: Alpha Purchase?)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

From           harley@pauillac.inria.fr (Robert Harley)
Organization   I.N.R.I.A Rocquencourt
Date           25 Apr 1997 18:16:16 GMT
Newsgroups     comp.sys.dec,comp.benchmarks
Message-ID     <5jqsdg$l0c@news-rocq.inria.fr>

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Niclas Mattsson <niclas@entek.chalmers.se> writes:
>>True, true. However this will become moot when DEC semiconductor
>>releases their new motherboard with SDRAM support, making cache far
>>less of an issue [...]
>Will someone expand on this? I'm considering the new Personal
>Workstation 600a [...]  Please deconfuse me!

Our group here at INRIA just got a PWS 500a and we're running Linux on it.
It's fucking awesome!

Here are are some numbers showing the speed (iters/time) on John Tromp's
Fhourstone benchmark, which does fairly random accesses in a large
array.  I ran it on an AlphaStation with 8MB of L3 cache and on the
PWS with 2MB.  Both have 500MHz 21164a chips.  For small sizes the two
are very similar.  Here you can see how the AS wins for sizes close to
it's cache size but the PWS overtakes it for big problems.

        AS 500  PWS 500a
  5MB   618.0   450.2
 10MB   542.2   439.0
 15MB   486.0   440.0
 30MB   432.2   442.9
 60MB   407.6   430.3
120MB   391.2   417.1
240MB   -----   401.1

I can run this test on an Aspen clone with 1MB cache too if people are
interested.

The following Stream numbers also show the PWS's advantage (for large
problems with little locality).  For a non-cached machine, add 30 or 40 MB/s:

Copy: 269, Scale: 267, Add: 289, Triad: 312

Bye,
  Rob.
     .-.                     Robert.Harley@inria.fr                    .-.
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 /         \     /       \   /     `-'   `-'     \   /       \     /         \
            \   /         `-'                     `-'         \   /
             `-'      Linux - 500MHz Alpha - 256MB SDRAM       `-'