From: Chris Mauritz <chrism@xxxxxxxxx>
> If you have a task that's I/O bound, then perhaps Bryan's concerns will
> impact your decision on a motherboard. For my purposes, I'm mostly cpu
> bound,
Then it doesn't apply.
> it really doesn't mean a hell of a lot to me that one cpu is
> "stuck" with mundane I/O tasks. And as cpus get faster and faster,
> this becomes less of an issue (if it's really an issue at all for most
> tasks).
That's not it at all. It has nothing to do with CPU performance.
It has everything to do with interconnect and the processor affinity
with regards to I/O and memory mapped transfers.
> Also, as Bryan mentions, the S2895 splits the I/O up a bit
> better and the newer revs of that board support dual core Opterons
> too.
Technically, all mainboards should support dual-core Opterons.
But the market reality is why give consumers a BIOS update when
you can charge for a new mainboard? ;->
Dual-core A64/Opterons don't change the interconnect one bit.
Dual-core Xeons/P4s are a whole different story.
> So if you're in an I/O heavy environment you could choose that
> board rather than the S2882.
Assume you could make use of one of the PCIe x16 slots for a storage
or other communications device, as well as the 2nd NIC.
--
Bryan J. Smith mailto:b.j.smith@xxxxxxxx
