Let's buy GIMPS an Opteron! - Page 4

Xyzzy · 2003-08-20, 18:38

$915.13 in donations... $748.33 spent... $166.80 left...

The memory and motherboard arrived today... Unfortunately, the motherboard is damaged so I will call to have it replaced...

http://www.mersenneforum.org/jpg/opteron02.jpg

http://www.mersenneforum.org/jpg/opteron03.jpg

http://www.mersenneforum.org/jpg/opteron04.jpg

eepiccolo · 2003-08-20, 18:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

The memory and motherboard arrived today... Unfortunately, the motherboard is damaged so I will call to have it replaced...

Well duh, motherboards aren't meant to be bent like that. ;) ;)

Are we sure we want Xyzzy in charge of this computer? ;) ;)

Dresdenboy · 2003-08-20, 19:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

The RH one is for the Itanium... AFAIK they don't have an Opteron version out yet...

I google'd a bit:

RH's distribution is called "GinGin64" and has a status of a tech preview as it seems.

Some d/l-link can be found in this post (was too busy right now):
http://lists.leap-cf.org/pipermail/l...ay/031154.html

Here is the RH AMD64 list:
https://listman.redhat.com/archives/amd64-list/

Here some place for Debian AMD64 port infos:
http://www.jukie.net/~bart/debian/amd64/

In my opinion the best to go with is still SuSe because it has the most AMD64 experience in the professional sector.

Xyzzy · 2003-08-20, 20:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by eepiccolo

Are we sure we want Xyzzy in charge of this computer? ;) ;)

The only tools I have around here are a hammer, some baling wire and a roll of duct tape...

Maybe I need a bigger hammer?

Xyzzy · 2003-08-20, 20:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dresdenboy

In my opinion the best to go with is still SuSe because it has the most AMD64 experience in the professional sector.

I've emailed Suse to ask them if they would donate a copy to our project...

http://www.suse.com/us/business/products/server/sles/amd64.html

I assume (!?) that we can just download and use, for free, a 64-bit Linux distro, but let's see if Suse replies...

Xyzzy · 2003-08-20, 21:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dresdenboy

The RH one is for the Itanium... RH's distribution is called "GinGin64" and has a status of a tech preview as it seems.

I'm downloading it right now... I live just a few miles away so if I can't get it this way I'll just drive on over and ask for help... :)

(Personally, I prefer RH first, then Debian and then Suse, only because I have a lot of experience with RH and Debian... I have played with Suse a bit and it is very much like RH so I figure it will be easy to learn...)

One nice thing about RH is it is very easy to do net installs... (Debian and Suse support this, too... Although I don't know if they do for the Opteron version... I frequently install all of these distros from boot floppys with no CDs...

Dresdenboy · 2003-08-21, 06:37

I wish you good luck!

And you are right, SuSe distributions are freely downloadable. Only when you buy a SuSe distribution, you usually pay for the media, books and support.

Xyzzy · 2003-08-21, 07:23

Here is the download folder for SuSE's version...

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/x86-64/8.2-beta/

So the real question is, which one do you all want? (RH or SuSE?)

IMO, whichever has the most active developer base would be best... Also, we need to look at which tools are bundled... I have no idea what you all need other than gcc...

Dresdenboy · 2003-08-21, 08:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dresdenboy

And you are right, SuSe distributions are freely downloadable. Only when you buy a SuSe distribution, you usually pay for the media, books and support.

A friend told me that SuSe distri's were never downloadable - except beta's as it seems.

However.. regarding www.x86-64.org's mail list SuSe seems to be more involved in the AMD64 things.

But actually the people don't need a top overall system (with stable versions of all nice and fancy tools) as long as there is a stable environment for developing and optimizing :)

Xyzzy · 2003-08-22, 17:36

$925.13 in donations... $748.33 spent... $176.80 left...

The CPU was delivered today... Check out the integrated heat spreader, the super heavy-duty heat sink, the plastic cap on the heat sink base and the number of pins! Yowza!

http://www.mersenneforum.org/jpg/opteron05.jpg

http://www.mersenneforum.org/jpg/opteron06.jpg

http://www.mersenneforum.org/jpg/opteron07.jpg

http://www.mersenneforum.org/jpg/opteron08.jpg

http://www.mersenneforum.org/jpg/opteron09.jpg

http://www.mersenneforum.org/jpg/opteron10.jpg

The only thing that bothers me is they give you a crappy looking sticker instead of one of those metallic foil ones...

Lumly · 2003-08-22, 21:13

Better not accidentally bend a pin, you'll never get it straight again ;) Too bad about the mobo rma else you'd have it up and running this weekend.

Fusion_power · 2003-08-22, 21:14

Put a few of those down pin side up and you would have a nice Addams family style bed!

Fusion

QuintLeo · 2003-08-23, 08:56

That heatsink looks amazingly like a minor varient on my Coolermaster HHC-002s I use on my Tyan s2462 Thunder dualy Athlon - only chance seems to be the mounting system, from what I can see in the pics.

Dresdenboy · 2003-08-23, 22:04

Xyzzy, maybe this is what you'd like to go with:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0: Beta Test Drive
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1228480,00.asp

Quote:

Taroon supports Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s x86_64, Intel Corp.'s ia64 and IBM's ppc64 and s390x 64-bit platforms, in addition to AMD and Intel's 32-bit x86 platforms. Red Hat supported ia64 in its last enterprise release; its support for AMD's x86_64 architecture, the one on which AMD's Opteron chips are based, is new.

[/b]

Xyzzy · 2003-08-24, 04:40

Ordinarily Redhat "enterprise" Linux costs a *lot* of money... I wonder if being stuck with a beta release is what we want?

SuSE is a beta and so is the other Redhat one, but I'm guessing that eventually one of them will be released for free as a regular release...

For now I'll download all 3 while I research them...

Dresdenboy · 2003-08-24, 18:59

I think, beta or not isn't important here because that depends on the testing of the whole system. For what we need it will have enough stability. And it's still possible to get the latest kernels and compiler releases then.

BTW there is an SSE/SSE2 issue of Opterons of revision B and earlier (Xyzzy's should be revision C). Some conditions like using the lower register half when the upper half is in an undefined state may lead to some performance decrease. I think that was a reason why the TMPGEnc benchmarks delivered such bad results. There are some heavily used main loops. If they contain just some "bad habits" this will sum up to a big drop in performance.

So it would be interesting to see how prime95 or mprime behave on this newer revision. Maybe there is some difference to the tests done by the c't magazine.

Xyzzy · 2003-08-24, 20:28

I can't find the errata for what you mentioned...

http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/cont...docs/25759.pdf

Do you have a link?

Our CPU has the following markings...

Code:

OSA140CC05AG
CAAFB 0327VPMW
9335946G30066

Dresdenboy · 2003-08-25, 07:42

I read that one too. No SSE2 information. But in the latest 25112.pdf (the opteron optimization manual) is some information regarding this revision B behaviour.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xyzzy

Our CPU has the following markings...

[code:1]OSA140CC05AG
CAAFB 0327VPMW
9335946G30066[/code:1]

CAAFB means B-Stepping. But it seems, that only the fastest Opterons (144, 244, 246 and so) get the newer steppings. That's surely because it reaches higher clock rates at lower voltage and AMD started to produce stepping C just a few months ago (it takes 72 days from wafer start to finishing it).

Here is some short info (+link) about the CPU codes:
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/r...age_id=1298385

But that's no problem. That are really special cases and I will take care to get a revision C (a guy from AMD told me about this faster revision in 7 weeks ago) in september for that we have a platform to test how it behaves on revision C (of which all Athlon 64s will be).

Bok · 2003-08-25, 13:42

Getting in late on this post.. and my first post here.

I've already contacted George and xyzzy (Hi Mike) and amazingly enough I also live in Raleigh...

My opteron 144 is being shipped today by generous donation of a fellow teammate (Fritz) with an Asus SK8N motherboard and a licensed copy of Suse Enterprise Linux 64-bit (not a beta). I'll get it up and running asap and make it available for ssh access for any developers. Some other project authors are also interested.

It has 1Gb Ram and I'll pick up a HD from intrex (local store) today.

Bok

http://www.us-distributed.com
http://www.seti-usa.com

Dresdenboy · 2003-08-25, 14:00

That starts to become an Opteron development network ;)

The 144 could be a revision C core.

Bok · 2003-08-25, 14:04

It's already been burnt in over the weekend out in SF.

Apparently on the BIOS it says AMD Engineering Sample :) I guess it's cutting edge :(

It overclocks fairly easily to 2Ghz btw.

Bok

Xyzzy · 2003-08-28, 01:37

Our replacement motherboard shipped out today... :)

Xyzzy · 2003-08-30, 06:51

I was sleeping when FedEx tried to deliver the motherboard today so I don't think we'll get it until Monday... :(

It looks like Gentoo has an Opteron version now...

http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/20030825-newsletter.xml

Erix · 2003-08-30, 09:29

Quote:

I was sleeping when FedEx tried to deliver the motherboard today

How could you sleep when an Opteron motherboard is on the way to your house?

:D :) :)

tom11784 · 2003-08-30, 16:50

Personally for me, after 40 hours you just get so tired that nothing keeps you up anymore. Hoping to expand past that this year at college.

2003-08-24, 20:28	#92
Xyzzy "Mike" Aug 2002 8245₁₀ Posts	I can't find the errata for what you mentioned... http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/cont...docs/25759.pdf Do you have a link? Our CPU has the following markings... Code: OSA140CC05AG CAAFB 0327VPMW 9335946G30066

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2003-08-20, 18:38	#76
Xyzzy "Mike" Aug 2002 5×17×97 Posts	$915.13 in donations... $748.33 spent... $166.80 left... The memory and motherboard arrived today... Unfortunately, the motherboard is damaged so I will call to have it replaced... http://www.mersenneforum.org/jpg/opteron02.jpg http://www.mersenneforum.org/jpg/opteron03.jpg http://www.mersenneforum.org/jpg/opteron04.jpg

2003-08-21, 06:37	#82
Dresdenboy Apr 2003 Berlin, Germany 101101001₂ Posts	I wish you good luck! And you are right, SuSe distributions are freely downloadable. Only when you buy a SuSe distribution, you usually pay for the media, books and support.

2003-08-21, 07:23	#83
Xyzzy "Mike" Aug 2002 5×17×97 Posts	Here is the download folder for SuSE's version... ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/x86-64/8.2-beta/ So the real question is, which one do you all want? (RH or SuSE?) IMO, whichever has the most active developer base would be best... Also, we need to look at which tools are bundled... I have no idea what you all need other than gcc...

2003-08-22, 17:36	#85
Xyzzy "Mike" Aug 2002 5·17·97 Posts	$925.13 in donations... $748.33 spent... $176.80 left... The CPU was delivered today... Check out the integrated heat spreader, the super heavy-duty heat sink, the plastic cap on the heat sink base and the number of pins! Yowza! http://www.mersenneforum.org/jpg/opteron05.jpg http://www.mersenneforum.org/jpg/opteron06.jpg http://www.mersenneforum.org/jpg/opteron07.jpg http://www.mersenneforum.org/jpg/opteron08.jpg http://www.mersenneforum.org/jpg/opteron09.jpg http://www.mersenneforum.org/jpg/opteron10.jpg The only thing that bothers me is they give you a crappy looking sticker instead of one of those metallic foil ones...

2003-08-22, 21:13	#86
Lumly Aug 2002 Quebec, Canada 29₁₀ Posts	Better not accidentally bend a pin, you'll never get it straight again ;) Too bad about the mobo rma else you'd have it up and running this weekend.

2003-08-22, 21:14	#87
Fusion_power Aug 2003 Snicker, AL 1110111111₂ Posts	Put a few of those down pin side up and you would have a nice Addams family style bed! Fusion

2003-08-23, 08:56	#88
QuintLeo Oct 2002 Lost in the hills of Iowa 700₈ Posts	That heatsink looks amazingly like a minor varient on my Coolermaster HHC-002s I use on my Tyan s2462 Thunder dualy Athlon - only chance seems to be the mounting system, from what I can see in the pics.

2003-08-24, 04:40	#90
Xyzzy "Mike" Aug 2002 10000000110101₂ Posts	Ordinarily Redhat "enterprise" Linux costs a lot of money... I wonder if being stuck with a beta release is what we want? SuSE is a beta and so is the other Redhat one, but I'm guessing that eventually one of them will be released for free as a regular release... For now I'll download all 3 while I research them...

2003-08-24, 18:59	#91
Dresdenboy Apr 2003 Berlin, Germany 19² Posts	I think, beta or not isn't important here because that depends on the testing of the whole system. For what we need it will have enough stability. And it's still possible to get the latest kernels and compiler releases then. BTW there is an SSE/SSE2 issue of Opterons of revision B and earlier (Xyzzy's should be revision C). Some conditions like using the lower register half when the upper half is in an undefined state may lead to some performance decrease. I think that was a reason why the TMPGEnc benchmarks delivered such bad results. There are some heavily used main loops. If they contain just some "bad habits" this will sum up to a big drop in performance. So it would be interesting to see how prime95 or mprime behave on this newer revision. Maybe there is some difference to the tests done by the c't magazine.

2003-08-25, 13:42	#94
Bok Aug 2003 5² Posts	Getting in late on this post.. and my first post here. I've already contacted George and xyzzy (Hi Mike) and amazingly enough I also live in Raleigh... My opteron 144 is being shipped today by generous donation of a fellow teammate (Fritz) with an Asus SK8N motherboard and a licensed copy of Suse Enterprise Linux 64-bit (not a beta). I'll get it up and running asap and make it available for ssh access for any developers. Some other project authors are also interested. It has 1Gb Ram and I'll pick up a HD from intrex (local store) today. Bok http://www.us-distributed.com http://www.seti-usa.com

2003-08-25, 14:00	#95
Dresdenboy Apr 2003 Berlin, Germany 19² Posts	That starts to become an Opteron development network ;) The 144 could be a revision C core.

2003-08-25, 14:04	#96
Bok Aug 2003 5² Posts	It's already been burnt in over the weekend out in SF. Apparently on the BIOS it says AMD Engineering Sample :) I guess it's cutting edge :( It overclocks fairly easily to 2Ghz btw. Bok

2003-08-28, 01:37	#97
Xyzzy "Mike" Aug 2002 8245₁₀ Posts	Our replacement motherboard shipped out today... :)

2003-08-30, 06:51	#98
Xyzzy "Mike" Aug 2002 5·17·97 Posts	I was sleeping when FedEx tried to deliver the motherboard today so I don't think we'll get it until Monday... :( It looks like Gentoo has an Opteron version now... http://www.gentoo.org/news/en/gwn/20030825-newsletter.xml

2003-08-30, 16:50	#100
tom11784 Aug 2003 Upstate NY, USA 2·163 Posts	Personally for me, after 40 hours you just get so tired that nothing keeps you up anymore. Hoping to expand past that this year at college.