OT: Is the AMD Phenom processor upwards compabible with the Opteron
Jonathan Ryshpan
jonrysh at pacbell.net
Thu Aug 27 16:52:15 UTC 2009
Thanks for your info, but your message leaves open exactly the two
questions that I was asking:
On Wed, 2009-08-26 at 12:15 -0700, Rick Stevens wrote:
> Jonathan Ryshpan wrote:
> > Configuring the kernel I came across a choice between generic-x86_64
> > processors, and the Opteron/Athlon/Hammer/K8 processors. My system has
> > a 4-core Phenom processor. Questions:
> >
> > 1. Is the Phenom compatible with the Opteron/etc? I.e. if I
> > configure for the Opteron, will my kernel be reliable? (This is
> > not as easy to find out as I thought.)
>
> To my knowledge, yes. It's certainly compatible with the Athlon. I run
> a Phenom quad-core as well, but I just use the off-the-shelf x86_64
> kernel. Works fine.
I run the same kernel myself, built for the generic-x86_64 CPU. The
question is are there enhancements for the Athlon above the generic,
which are not compatible with the Phenom. I think not, but I haven't
been able to get any firm info yet.
> > 2. How much of a performance advantage is there to configuring for
> > the Opteron as against the generic?
>
> I don't know that you'd notice any significant difference with a normal
> work load. If you were doing heavy I/O or number crunching, then you
> might see some difference, but not enough to really bother making a
> custom kernel.
Again, I suspect you're right about both things. I have to build
another kernel to chenge the preemption rule from VOLUNTARY_PREEMPT to
PREEMPT, so this looked like a natural change to add (if it works).
Thanks - jon
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