Robert Cummings wrote:

>> 
>> It's not easy in any language, but if your key concern is the
>> performance of PHP (as a language), hardware is what you need.  You
>> can design your software to run on a single box with lots of CPU
>> cores, or
>> you can go for a distributed (and more easily scalable) approach.  If
>> you don't need/want straight scalability, go for the 32 cores all
>> ticking at 3GHz.  Once that is saturated, buy another one.
> 
> If you go multi core then you need to go with a threaded approach...
> which makes the development a bit complex for newbies to MUD
> development. 

'c...@l-i-e.com' doesn't seem like a newbie to me, but you're right, it
would be a complex job for a newbie.  Nevertheless, given todays
machines where even laptops have multiple cores, I would certainly
design any new performance-critical application for multi-threading. 
(Multi-threading in PHP is a challenge in itself, and I wouldn't choose
PHP for such a job, but that's a different story).

> I don't think I'd go distributed since people whine about 
> lag that takes a 1/4 second... distributed would inherently require
> more time while messages are passed to and fro.

That is perhaps a valid consideration, but isn't it easily dealt with by
using gigabit ethernet or infiniband or something similar?

The distributed vs. one big monolith discussion is also a matter of
space, cooling, electricity etc.  The big monolith is easier to deal
with, but also carries a different pricetag. The many machines can be
gradually expanded at a lower cost, but need much more in terms of
infrastructure.


/Per Jessen, Zürich


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