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[commit] Support for Intel se7501cw2
by steven james 25 Feb '03

25 Feb '03

Greetings, I've just committed support for the 533MHz FSB version of Intel Clearwater and the E7501 northbridge. It's not well tested yet, but it does etherboot the kernel. G'day, sjames -- -------------------------steven james, director of research, linux labs ... ........ ..... .... 230 peachtree st nw ste 701 the original linux labs atlanta.ga.us 30303 -since 1995 http://www.linuxlabs.com office 404.577.7747 fax 404.577.7743 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: Getting a small cluster running - PC-Chips 810
by Jonathan Morton 25 Feb '03

25 Feb '03

> > This seems to imply I don't need a Disk-on-Chip unit, separate Flash >> chip, or Flash programmer (unless I goof up, in which case the Flash >> programmer can be used to restore the original BIOS). Is this >> correct? > >That's right. DOC is not necessary, but would be a nice option to have. >DOC not only reduces traffic, but also allows some fancy features, eg kexec. I don't expect traffic or features to be a problem, as with OpenMOSIX the slave would be running almost nothing autonomously. > > FWIW, I'm planning to use Gentoo Linux, which should say something >> about my proficiency level. IOW, I'm not averse to compiling things >> and generally fiddling around, but the existence of a nearly >> plug-and-play solution is encouraging (and likely to satisfy my >> supervisor more easily). > >For fb support, you need sisfb_lite patch. If you don't need fb, stock >kernel might work. I probably don't need video at all, except to make sure the box boots properly. Even for that, I could probably get away with serial console, as I think the master will have two spare serial ports. :o) I'll try your stock image first as a proof of concept, then build an OpenMOSIX kernel and image using the least number of patches necessary. Gentoo include an OpenMOSIX-patched kernel source tree, which is nice of them, so I only need to worry about the LinuxBIOS patches and hackery. I'm guessing that if I use the vendor-supplied BIOS flash utility, I don't need to muck around with MTD drivers, right? Looking at the HOWTOs, that method seems to be extremely icky at the moment, requiring kernel source edits. I don't mind getting a single floppy drive, and moving it between slaves for this step. -- -------------------------------------------------------------- from: Jonathan "Chromatix" Morton mail: chromi(a)chromatix.demon.co.uk website: http://www.chromatix.uklinux.net/ tagline: The key to knowledge is not to rely on people to teach you it.

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help!!!who can explain the interface between linuxbios and linux.
by 王海明 25 Feb '03

25 Feb '03

dear all: I have developed a linuxbios debug system succefully.I introduced gdb stub into my system. In my system ,developers can debug linuxbios at source code level. I setup the stub at the beginning of the begin of the function of hardwaremain, the first c function.Now the system can excute the function of "step",'step into" "step out" ,"breakpoint"and so on. but the system has not been tested fully. I wonder if my design is usefull to others. by the way, I have several question.I will appreciate anyone's any idea! my question are as follows: 1. As we know, traditonal BIOS not only do some initialization work, but also put some data about the hardware in somewhere.BIOS even offer some routine such as intx( I know that In linux souce file "setup.s",int10, int13and int15 are used),but linuxbios doesn't offer. my question is: what is the mininal need of linux kernel's starting? what data does It need in detail? where does the data need to be placed in detail? what routine does linux kernel need for it's starting ? how does linuxbios offer these data and routines? 2. the second question is about PCI. I found that in linuxbios, some PCI initialization work is done.as we know ,in linux kernel, the same work was be done.Some linuxbios PCI initialization code is even the same with linux kernel. my question is: if the initialization in linuxbios is necessary? 3. my third question is about etherboot. I get a ide-patch of etherboot, and I succefully boot my system via IDE .I have read the code for a long time,but still have no idea about it. I found it seems does not do the same as setup.s,the kernel loader of traditional linux.who can explain it to me? I know there are some clever and experienced man in this site.I am very interested in this topic and admire all the man with good skills.I am looking forward to some help. best regards! yours HaimingWang

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Re: Low cost cluster
by Jonathan Morton 25 Feb '03

25 Feb '03

> > Thus I obtained an effective performance figure of 2.0 MFLOPS/MHz, >> versus Athlon-XP figure of 0.5 (for both x87 and SSE) and Pentium-4 >> figure of 0.4 (for SSE). This is not hype - this is me reading the >> documentation and doing the maths. > >This is an estimate, not a benchmark. It would be interesting what the >Apple C compiler would make from your code. Your code seems to map to >AltiVec very well, this is pretty rare. My algorithm is made up of standard matrix operations, such as multiplies and inversions. By transposing one of the matrices beforehand, the individual operations are mostly sequential in terms of memory access and uniform in terms of operation, which means it does map very well to vector code. It would probably also benefit from 3DNOW on the Athlon, but I understand x86 assembly code is a lot hairier, and certainly my compiler is unable to generate 3DNOW code by itself. As a result, I've been unable to determine how much benefit I might see. >Have G4 with equivalent MHz rating of Athlons been sold lately? It seems >Athlons are clocked at twice the speed of G4s. >What is the cost of a refurbished G4 system vs. a bunch of recent Athlons? >I think the MFlops/$ benchmark is more interesting. For comparable prices, I can get an 867MHz dual G4, or three single Athlon-XPs at 1666MHz. Given that I can get four times the performance per clock per CPU with the G4, it's a net win - as I posted earlier, 3500 against 2500 MFLOPS. I'm still concerned about the potential of having to use Windows software though, and that's likely to sway the final decision. Another worthwhile comparison might be in terms of MFLOPS per watt, and that would be particularly relevant to larger clusters, where power consumption and heat become significant environmental factors. I understand a 1GHz G4+ is at around 15-20W maximum, which I'd assume is while running Altivec code (and would go down with the vector units not in use). By comparison, Athlons seem to average around 50W, depending on the particular core type and clock speed, and are unable to shut down functional units that are not in use. -- -------------------------------------------------------------- from: Jonathan "Chromatix" Morton mail: chromi(a)chromatix.demon.co.uk website: http://www.chromatix.uklinux.net/ tagline: The key to knowledge is not to rely on people to teach you it.

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Re: Low cost cluster
by Jonathan Morton 25 Feb '03

25 Feb '03

>I agree with your reasoning - cheap motherboards are readily available. > >For use at home, however, I looked at the mini-ITX motherboards. >Less CPU performance of course, but low power and low cost. I don't think there'll be power problems with such a small number (initially just 2) of slaves, really. I'm constrained by a fairly tight capital budget, designed to make 1 good PC, and I found I could turn it into one respectable PC plus two cheap slaves. If I really wanted to push the CPU-power envelope, I'd get a refurbished PowerMac. I still might. The cluster would give me an aggregate 2500 MFLOPS, while a previous-model Mac would give me 3500 for about the same price (both figures being what the compiler alone can do). The only thing holding me back from that, is the possibility of needing to run high-end physical-simulation software that is probably only available for Windows. (Yes, I know about PC emulation software, but it takes a large performance hit.) BTW, this setup is officially to allow me to move my personal machines off the desk and back home! They're currently an Athlon 1.2GHz and a Duron 800, plus a Pentium-MMX and a 486 that are used as servers. >I also have a PC-chips 810MLR, which we used for Linuxbios work last >summer. I do hate to say it, but Linuxbios does work, but PCChips >have a rather bad reputation. Given the price, this isn't *so* surprising, but given the price it's also easy to "forgive and replace". Because they are slaves, it's easy to take one offline if it goes bad, and take time over getting it replaced (probably under warranty). I hope LinuxBIOS is more flexible than the rather anaemic status page suggests. >If someone else is paying, from a grant, then think about getting a >cluster with better hardware, say using Tyan or Supermicro motherboards. I will have to see if any are available at a comparable price. I do know that finding a case big enough to fit a Tiger into, while still keeping the price down, could be a real pain. But then, SMP boards tend not to be designed to be cheap. :) That is a good point though - I should look at putting a pair of SMP machines together, and see how the price compares. However, I think the single SMP I priced was scraping the budget already - Athlon-MPs are priced noticeably higher than their single equivalents, which definitely hurts when compared to clusters of single-CPU slaves. >A little more capital cost will result in much less grief later. >And also think about the cases - do you have room for a pile of big >ATX cases? Let me see, right now the desk has one full-tower and one midi-tower ATX, one AT, and one low-profile desktop, plus two monitors, at least three keyboards, plus a laptop, all piled on and around it. I'm planning to replace all that with one large medium-tower and two midi ATXs, plus one monitor and one keyboard. I don't think space is a problem. :-) >Where is your department? Lancaster, UK. -- -------------------------------------------------------------- from: Jonathan "Chromatix" Morton mail: chromi(a)chromatix.demon.co.uk website: http://www.chromatix.uklinux.net/ tagline: The key to knowledge is not to rely on people to teach you it.

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Re: Low cost cluster
by Alessio Sangalli 25 Feb '03

25 Feb '03

Jonathan Morton wrote: > If I really wanted to push the CPU-power envelope, I'd get a refurbished > PowerMac. I still might. The cluster would give me an aggregate 2500 > MFLOPS, while a previous-model Mac would give me 3500 for about the is this supposed to be funny or do you really believe S. Job's jokes? ;) bye!!! ciao as -- How to build a lirc receiver http://www.manoweb.com/alesan/lirc

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Getting a small cluster running - PC-Chips 810
by Jonathan Morton 24 Feb '03

24 Feb '03

Background: I want to get the most CPU power out of a limited budget, for use with a research project involving signal processing. So far, apart from buying a refurbished Mac, the best solution seems to be building an OpenMOSIX cluster using Athlon-XPs. I plan to use a "master" computer with a slightly faster CPU than the slaves, and fitted with a full-function m/board and peripherals. The master does not need to run LinuxBIOS, but it's existence means it should be easy to build kernel variants to test, without risking loss of machine functionality. To keep the cost of each slave as low as possible, I want to eliminate all storage hardware from them, including floppy drive. This means booting Linux over NFS, and/or installing part of it in the BIOS chip. Hence my interest in LinuxBIOS. If I will need significant extra hardware to reliably install LinuxBIOS, I might just as well boot from floppy. So far, I've identified a PC-Chips 810 board from one of my suppliers: http://www.aria.co.uk/ProductInfoComm.asp?ID=2050 which will be fitted with an Athlon-XP 2000+, some RAM, a case, a PSU, and nothing else whatsoever. Total slave cost in this configuration is under £160 including VAT. Because this will be used in an academic Engineering department, there will probably be a Flash and/or EEPROM programmer lying around somewhere, that I can use rather than swapping BIOS chips. Can anyone provide guidance on my chances of success, and how easy this is likely to be? -- -------------------------------------------------------------- from: Jonathan "Chromatix" Morton mail: chromi(a)chromatix.demon.co.uk website: http://www.chromatix.uklinux.net/ tagline: The key to knowledge is not to rely on people to teach you it.

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Status page
by Andrew Ip 24 Feb '03

24 Feb '03

Looks like status page is not being updated, eg 787 is not in the list. -Andrew -- Andrew Ip Email: aip(a)cwlinux.com Tel: (852) 2542 2046 Fax: (852) 2542 2036 Mobile: (852) 9201 9866 Cwlinux Limited Unit 202B 2/F Lai Cheong Factory Building, 479-479A Castle Peak Road, Lai Chi Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Tel: (852)2542 2046 Fax: (852)2542 2036 For public pgp key, please obtain it from http://www.keyserver.net/en.

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Re:Re: How to initialize USB controller in LinuxBios?
by riskin＠263.net 23 Feb '03

23 Feb '03

----- Original Message ----- From: "ollie lho" <ollie(a)sis.com.tw> To: <riskin(a)263.net> Cc: <aip(a)cwlinux.com>,<jerj(a)coplanar.net>,"LinuxBIOS Mailing List" <linuxbios(a)clustermatic.org>,"Ronald G Minnich" <rminnich(a)lanl.gov> Sent: 2003-02-21 20:29:46 Subject: Re: How to initialize USB controller in LinuxBios? >On Fri, 2003-02-21 at 10:26, riskin(a)263.net wrote: >Do you really have any idea about USB controller ?? USB controller >does not require IP address space, it uses MMIO address space which >is called non-prefetchable memory in PCI spec. The controller does >not need any special init stuff. I don't think USB is supported by >2.2.x kernel neither. Why do you insist using 2.2.x kernel ? > >-- >ollie lho <ollie(a)sis.com.tw> I don't want to use 2.2.x kernel,but for some reasons, I must use the version. I don't know about USB controller indeed. But why do I see "I/O" addresses in standard bios environment on other boxes(not sis630e chipset),instead of non-prefetchable memory? In addition,there are patches supporting USB in 2.2.x kernel.I have successfully tried it on standard bios environment with 2.2.x kernel. Thanks, riskin ========================== 263电子邮件－信赖邮自专业

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gx1 ram size error
by zhu shi song 23 Feb '03

23 Feb '03

now i can boot my ec3 mainboard, but linuxbios can only find 32M ram, but I have 256M RAM. do you meet such problem? ec3 mainboard specification: processor: on-board NS GX1 233MHZ(fanless) chipset: NS CS5530A System Memory: one SDRAM DIMM BIOS: 2Mbit Flash BIOS solid state disk: support diskonchip 2000 --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, and more

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