Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S264155AbTICRcx (ORCPT ); Wed, 3 Sep 2003 13:32:53 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S264148AbTICRca (ORCPT ); Wed, 3 Sep 2003 13:32:30 -0400 Received: from smtp.bitmover.com ([192.132.92.12]:48855 "EHLO smtp.bitmover.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S264146AbTICRcU (ORCPT ); Wed, 3 Sep 2003 13:32:20 -0400 Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2003 10:32:13 -0700 From: Larry McVoy To: "Brown, Len" Cc: Larry McVoy , Giuliano Pochini , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Scaling noise Message-ID: <20030903173213.GC5769@work.bitmover.com> Mail-Followup-To: Larry McVoy , "Brown, Len" , Larry McVoy , Giuliano Pochini , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.4i X-MailScanner-Information: Please contact the ISP for more information X-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-MailScanner-SpamCheck: not spam (whitelisted), SpamAssassin (score=0.5, required 7, AWL, DATE_IN_PAST_06_12) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1473 Lines: 34 On Wed, Sep 03, 2003 at 01:07:03PM -0400, Brown, Len wrote: > Fortunately seek time on RAM is lower than disk;-) Sure, parallel > systems are a waste of effort for running a single copy of a single > threaded app, but when you have multiple apps, or better yet MT apps, > you win. If system performance were limited over time to the rate of > decrease in RAM latency, then we'd be in sorry shape. For a lot of applications we are. Go talk to your buddies in the processor group, I think there is a fair amount of awareness that for most apps faster processors aren't doing any good. Ditto for SMP. > Back to the original off-topic... > An OEM can spin their motivation to focus on smaller systems in 3 ways: > > 1. large server sales are a small % of industry units > 2. large server sales are a small % of industry revenue > 3. large server sales are a small % of industry profits > > Only 1 is true. How about some data to back up that statement? Sun: ~11B/year and losing money, heavily server based Dell: ~38B/year and making money, 99% small box based If you were gambling with _your_ money, would you invest in Sun or Dell? -- --- Larry McVoy lm at bitmover.com http://www.bitmover.com/lm - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/