dual processors can u

[bighogjeep]

may be dumb but is there a way to run dual pentuim 2 266 processors in the same way as 2 video cards run in sli? one processor reads say odd and one even or what ever or does 1 processor do all the work and when needed the second processor kicks in

thanks

[ENVY]

a dual processor board does exist.So far as I know win nt and maybe linux(help me here guys)support dual processors.

[Bazango]

Some old postings here under my user name cover this same discusion. If I remember correctly, Linux does use two processors and more and Windows NT handles two. I have a dual processor board that I got pretty cheap. I haven't actually run it yet, so I can't speak for it's quality, but they are out there.

What's this about running two video boards at once?

[bighogjeep]

Bazango ---> link 2 voodoo 2 cards to run in sli mode it more than doubles your frames per second can u do that with two processors will it more than double your stuff so that you are running at say 500 mhz ? is what i meant to say i guess

[Bleeding Edge]

Nt can handle up to 4 processors. The Enterprise edition of NT handles 8. The special edition of that handles up to 32 processors.

[CMonster]

Just as UNIX can be configured to run multiple processor machines so theoretically can Linux, I have heard a lot about Linux running dual processors and then there was that project at one of the CA universities that used Linux to create a cheap super computer by networking 100 or so PCs. Duals I can see, and perhaps even quads; but anything more- me thinks- is like for radar imaging systems used in spy planes.

By the way, BeOS will run duals automaticly; BeOS is worth checking out as a curiosity, but there just are not enough applications for it yet.

[Bazango]

bighogjeep

Dual processors do not by themselves double processing speed. You cannot just run any software and expect to even use both processors. Both the operating system AND the software you are using must be written to use both processors, or how many ever you are using.

Is that right, out there?

While we are on the subject, is what we are talking about called "symmetric processing"?

[Bleeding Edge]

As far as I understand it that's correct. To get the most out of symmetrical multiprocessing (SMP) the program should be written to take advantage of this.

There is, however, something built into NT called affinity. This lets us manually select which CPU each running process/program (from keyboard i/o to applications, everything) is assigned to.

All processes are assigned to use all CPU's in the default setup. We can then rededicate. You can free up an entire cpu for use of only one program, if you wish.

As Bazango stated, you wont get "double speed" or double processing power unless the app is written for it. But you can see where Affinity would be advantageous.

I guess another point is (in regards to non-multiprocessor apps,) although the default affinity setting is for each process to use both CPUs, it's not running in parallel per-say but in serial (inline).

EDIT

Is Massively Parallel computing like what CMonster describes? Where all the CPUs in different computers number crunch in parallel? I think that's what some of those SFX studios do to deliver Jurassic Park, Lost in Space, Titanic type of graphics. They link like a bunch of Silicon Graphics systems together. I heard some of these guys use Intel based PCs to do the same thing at a lower cost.

By the way, do any of you guys know when we can buy the Camino chipset based motherboards?

[This message has been edited by Bleeding Edge (edited 04-28-99).]

[Bleeding Edge]

Not with NT as it exists now. Windows 2000 should give us the hardware compatability of 98 with NT's multiprocessor abilities. In the mean time you can start beefing up the disk subsystem to a Raid configuration with couple of ultra2 LVD drives.

[Bazango]

I'm with you, bighogjeep. With me, it's flight sims. In QUE's 4th edition gold book on Linux, they report that there is a version of Doom for Linux. Whether it uses multiprocessing or not, I don't know. I also saw on the box of a Redhat version that it included a flight simulator.

Whoa! Bleeding Edge, about HDs: Are you talking about parallel accessing hard drives? Do you really need extra fancy stuff to do that? What is a Raid configuration? And Camino chipset? What's that?

[This message has been edited by Bazango (edited 04-29-99).]

[harddisk]

U wont get double speed, such as 233 + 233 = 466
the processors works in parallel, juz like V2's 2 texelfx's cheaps....if 1 is needed, the other will be in rest, example like, using Win95, it's a waste for the 2nd processor.

Anyway, 2 processors do speed up a lot in NT...provided with enuf amount of ram

[Bleeding Edge]

Three posts up bigHJ sounded as if he is itching to spend some money so I thought i'd mention the Raid business as a temporary outlet to deflate his wallet.

Raid 0, 1 and 0/1 will optimize disk efficiency. Parallel access in the full sense of the term. Both read and write.
Raid has 5 basic levels. 0 being highest optimization to 5 of fullest protection.
In Raid the data is "stripped" and scattered among different drives. So a file to be saved gets half of it written to one drive and the other half to a second drive simultaneously. The retrieval of the data is the same parallel process.

I don't know if I'm explaining this well.

In essense, in a normal drive subsystem, a block of data that takes 10 seconds to read/write would only take a 2 drive Raid based system 5 seconds.

Some motherboards have a dedicated PCI slot for a Raid card. All that's needed is a Raid controller (similar to a SCSI card) from Adaptec and 2 or more identical hard drives. As far as I know they can be IDE drives.
I'm going to trying it later on this year with ultra2 LVD drives. All I need is the card.

Camino is the (code?) name Intel gave to their upcoming new chipset for motherboards. It supports those new 66/UDMA drives, 4X AGP video cards and the faster 133MHz memory.

Everyone has been raving about the new TNT2 based video cards, I'd like to get one myself but what's the use if we can't utilize the full potential of the 4X bandwith. In order to use that, we need to buy another motherboard with these new chipsets -conspiracy!

[bighogjeep]

whoa dude now that is some sweet info that ive never heard of bleeding im gonna read up on that raid stuff try to hook up to a dbl processor new bad *** video card and say booo yawh!!!!!!!!!!!

[bighogjeep]

hey guys thanks alot for the replies ok then would it be and advantage to run dual processors for gaming and surfing the net thats all i do is pretty much game i know ram and video card is really important but i want to step aside from the norm getting bored with 400 256 ram 10 gig bla bla bla http://www.sysopt.com/forum/redface.gif) build my own super badboy for gaming hehe

[CMonster]

"deflate his wallet" BE you are too funny - that made my day!! Hahahahahahahaha!!!