*BSD News Article 1733


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From: lance@unix386.Convergent.COM (Lance Norskog)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd
Subject: Re: PROJECT IDEA: Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP) for 386BSD?
Message-ID: <8879@unix386.Convergent.COM>
Date: 26 Jun 92 22:09:45 GMT
References: <1992Jun25.070736.6370@iitmax.iit.edu> <l4jcegINNs1k@neuro.usc.edu>
Organization: Unisys/Convergent, San Jose, CA
Lines: 19

Compaq and Apricot make multi-486 machines, I think Compaq's goes up to 5.

The problem is not hardware, but software.  Symmetric multi-processing 
for Unix is an invention of the devil.  You have to rewrite everything
in the kernel, and of course you've heard of "kernel bloat"?

There are multi-processor OS bases out that that emulate Unix.
Synthesis emulates BSD Unix, and I think Choices emulates V7.
Synthesis is several times faster than SUNos on the same hardware.

If you want multi-processing action for cheap machines, your
best bet is SCSI.  SCSI is not a disk connector, it is a multi-cpu
(up to 8!) 4mhz LAN with a severe cable length problem.  
Since it can do guaranteed reliable transmits 
if you implement some sort of retry, you won't need to run TCP over it.
You would probably want to just add a separate AF_SCSI to the network
switch, and do NFS over it.

Lance Norskog