On Tue, Apr 28, 2015 at 5:47 PM, Thibaut Varène <t-b...@parisc-linux.org> wrote: > > On 29 avr. 2015, at 00:31, Paul Hargrove <phhargr...@lbl.gov> wrote: > >> I've seen this topic addressed in the archives, and don't want to restart >> any of the arguments about how useful/relevant CFarm has become. >> From my point of view "beggars can't be choosers" and so this email is just >> my observations and a few questions and NOT any sort of complaint. >> >> As others have observed, the gcc-cfarm systems that are currently usable are >> almost exclusively x86-64/Linux. >> There are certainly notable exceptions, such as >> + The POWER7 and POWER8 systems donated by IBM (thanks guys!). >> + AIX and NetBSD on gcc111 and gcc70, respectively >> + The VMs on gcc76 >> >> Since most of us probably use Linux or OSX on x86-64 every day, this is not >> "diverse" for some of us (though I know our definitions of "diverse" will >> differ). >> So, I want to ask: >> >> 1) Is there any effort (current or planned for the near-future) to revive >> any of the IA64, ARM, MIPS or SPARC systems? >> >> 2) Is there any desire from users to see QEMU-emulated ARM, MIPS or SPARC >> within cfarm if the real h/w is non-recoverable? > > This brings the question of "what is cfarm used for". QEMU can only "emulate" > so much, and in some specific cases, nothing can replace actual hardware > testing. The behavior of some platforms, and more precisely some flavors of > said platforms, can be "surprising" when compared to its QEMU counterpart > under specific loads.
One thing that QEMU testing cannot do well is testing threaded applications and memory models. And with a fast enough processor, sometimes QEMU testing will be much slower. I have an example is running on a ThunderX (or even an Octeon 3 for those MIPS guys here :)). Doing a bootstrap/test will only take around 2 hours if you use all of the cores (48 of them). While doing a compiler build and test on a x86_64 using QEMU takes 4-5 hours instead. Thanks, Andrew > > My 2c. > > T. > _______________________________________________ > Gcc-cfarm-users mailing list > Gcc-cfarm-users@gna.org > https://mail.gna.org/listinfo/gcc-cfarm-users _______________________________________________ Gcc-cfarm-users mailing list Gcc-cfarm-users@gna.org https://mail.gna.org/listinfo/gcc-cfarm-users
