SMP stands for Symmetric Multi Processing. It means that two or more CPU's
work together in completing a task. It's not the same as a beowulf cluster,
which means several computers work together; in SMP the multiple processors
are located on the same mainboard.
The processors share the same resources (main memory, PCI-bus, ...) and
most applications won't benefit from SMP, since they have to be especially
written to support multithreading. So an application that finishes in 5
minutes on a single processor machine will not finish faster on a SMP
machine with the same CPU's.
However, since you're having two CPU's, one CPU can work on one task, while
the other can work on another, meaning that you can finnish two identical
tasks in almost the same amount of time it would take a single processor
machine to fnish one of them. SMP adds a little overhead, but it's
negligable...
As to Mandrake supporting SMP... Well, the Linux Kernel supports it, sop
yes... So does Mandrake.
I have a SMP box myself (Abit BP6 mobo with 2 Celeri 400 overclocked to
500) and I'm quite happpy with it. It rocks to see your computer push out 2
SETI@home results in the same amount of time a regular computer will do
over one SETI@home task.
Also, since most apps don't use multithreading, an app which would
generally tie up one CPU to the extent where a single-processor machine
would be unusable because it gets overloaded, will only tie up one CPU,
leaving the other CPU free to do other stuff, meaning that even when
running heavy tasks your computer will still remain responsive.
Right now, the only thing that can slow down my box is a) running two
process-hungry tasks at once, or b) heavy I/O (reading from harddisk
etc...) which will cause applications to wait for data that is queued to
get read after all the other data for another app has been read (including
swap-memory for example).
If you want to know more about SMP, I'd suggest you read the SMP-howto, or
get a good book on computer architecture.
Note: Celeri don't work in SMP anymore, so right now if you seriously
intend to buy an SMP box, you're gonna have to buy a dual PIII (Abit VP6
mainboard looks nice; you can find the specs on the Abit site).
So, the main advantages are:
a) Multithreading tasks can finish in about half the time (given they can
make optimal use of SMP)
b) You can run two identical tasks in half the time because each task will
be given to another CPU
c) Running one process-hungry task will not leave your computer in a
unusable state; the box will remain responsive.
d) The geek-factor ;)
The main disadvantages are:
a) SMP mainboards are usually a bit more expensive
b) You have to buy two identical CPU's, which makes your box even more
expensive
c) Every now and then there are some drivers which don't work on SMP
machines (as was the case with my SB Live! drivers when I just bought my
computer, but they fixed it now).
It's up to you to decide if you really need this, and thus want to invest
more in hardware, or if you prefer to see it as just another geek-gimmick.
I'm happy with my SMP box, and as long as I can afford it I'll keep on
buying SMP machines. Since I generally buy a new computer every three to
six years, the extra cost does pay off since an SMP box will last me longer
than a uniprocessor machine would. The main part of my applications is
composed of small apps which all run at once, and not one app which needs
all of the CPU, so when the little apps need some more CPU, there's more
reserves in my box than I would have on a single CPU machine (twice the
processing power minus a few percents for SMP overhead).
Bottom line: a dual PIII@1GHz will not behave like a single PIII@2GHz. It
will generally not reduce the time needed for a task to complete but it can
run more tasks at once without slowing down the machine.
On 2001.03.21 20:37 Faisal Gillani wrote:
> what is smp feature used in prosessors ?
> whats are its benifts ?
> does mandrake ues its features ?
>
>
> *º¤., ¸¸,.¤º*¨¨¨*¤Allah Hafiz*º¤., ¸¸,.¤º*¨¨*¤
> *º¤., ¸¸,.¤º*¨¨¨*Faisal Gillani º¤., ¸¸,.¤º*¨¨*¤
>
>
>
>
>
>
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