Bayard Coolidge USG ZKO3-3/S20 wrote:
> I know teacher, I know!! Can I answer, pretty please??
>
Oh, Bayard, and you were so close too... no gold star today! ;)
>
> :-)
>
> Bruce McCulley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> asks:
>
> >>> Just out of curiosity, what is "an 8P partition"?
> >>> Is my SWAG that it refers to an 8-CPU chunk of the machine anywhere
> >>> close to the truth? And much more interesting, if so does that imply
> >>> that some other 8P chunk could simultaneously be running some other os?
>
> Precisely! (Except that I'm not a psychologist, so I don't know if
> you're delusional or not :-). You can buy 8, 16, or 32 processor
> systems (at 731MHz, currently...), and then subdivide them into
> 8 processor chunks if you so choose, by using some console commands.
>
Bzzzt. You can subdivide them into 4 processor chunks (one partition per QBB)
or any multiple thereof. All you need is a master PCI drawer (the one with CD
and internal HDD) and a simple command from the SCM.
> Note that the larger systems will tend to have more than one PCI box
> (and each box holds a dozen or so PCI slots, but a given box can go
>
Fourteen PCI slots, to be exact: two busses of four slots, two of three. But
on a master PCI drawer, for now anyway, the serial console takes up one slot.
I think they're going to change that, or maybe they already did...
> to only one of the partitions.). So, if you want 2 partitions, you
> need at least 2 PCI boxes, so long as you have at least one PCI box
> per partition.
Again, just so nobody's confused - they have to be "master" PCI drawers. We
sell slaves as well (cheaper than the masters) but they don't have the smarts
to actually run a partition.
> The CPU chunks are actually divided into "QBB" - quad
> building blocks of 4 CPUs and some associated memory, although
> it is technically a NUMA configuration, so the configuration permutations
> get a bit crazy. The QBBs all talk to each other and the memory and
> the i/o on a very large, very fast crossbar switch.
>
Yup, it's pretty much "order what you need, and you can upgrade later". Just
you don't have to pay for the 32 CPU chassis and all when only using 16 CPUs.
>
> One of the marketing tools that we employ is selling incremental
> capacity, wherein customers are shipped a system with 16 CPU's, but
> have 8 of them turned off by the software license. If they want to
> buy (or rent) the incremental additional capacity, we send them the
> appropriate software license (for Tru64 UNIX or OpenVMS, not Linux).
>
Or, you can do it this way (I believe it's called COD - Capacity on Demand).
Buy everything, but only turn on some of it.
> Bayard
> (Speaking on his own behalf, not as an official spokesperson for
> Compaq Computer Corporation!!)
>
- Pete (and if I am speaking for Compaq, it's for their own good ;)
**********************************************************
To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] with the following text in the
*body* (*not* the subject line) of the letter:
unsubscribe gnhlug
**********************************************************
