On Sat, Sep 25, 2010 at 11:43:10PM +0200, Patrick Oeschger wrote: > there is a rather new processor from TILERA (100 core chip) which is > most certainly already known here at OpenBSD ARM mailing list. > [http://www.tilera.com/products/processors/TILE-Gx_Family] > the processor/platform is targeted towards: > - high performance network security platforms > - firewalling/vpn > - utm > - l7 deep packet inspection > - network monitoring and forensics > - cloud computing > - web application (lamp) > - data caching (memcached) > - database applications > - high-performance computing > > chris metcalf from TILERA did the current linux port and i was in > contact with him about two weeks ago. > it was chris who brought me in contact with the director of sales for > the EMEA region. > btw: > at this time QUANTA computer is starting to offer a 512 core 2U box > with an impressive performance/watt ratio (400 watts only for 512 > cores). > [http://www.tilera.com/solutions/cloud_computing] > > i guess those massive multicore chips would enable bleeding edge > high performance solutions based on OpenBSD. > > now... > - anyone interested in porting OpenBSD/ARM towards TILERA?
Not speaking for the OpenBSD developers obviously, but... My understanding is that "tile" is more of a MIPS architecture? In Linux, tile is a self-standing arch and it needs a special tile gcc port which is afaik only in gcc 4.4+. There's strong resistance against importing a GPLv3 compiler appearantly. I'm pretty sure there's some interest, but given the amount of work (time) required in both toolchain and kernel, I'd say it won't happen anytime soon. > - is there already some ongoing porting effort? Very doubtful. > - porting for this chip already discussed in this mailing list? No. Sounds like you have a business interest in this processor running OpenBSD. An offer to employ/sponsor someone for a significant amount of time might well change the chances of this to happen. You might want to look at Caviums Oceton, there's work going on to support that in OpenBSD. > > many thx > /pat > > some links for those who want some more details: > company homepage: > http://www.tilera.com/ > 64core processor: > http://www.tilera.com/products/processors/TILEPRO64 > 100core processor with hardware packet (pre)processing > http://www.tilera.com/products/processors/TILE-Gx_Family > sample architecture for network appliances: > http://www.tilera.com/solutions/networking/network_security_appliances > 512core system from QUANTA computer inc. (available Q4-10/Q1-11): > http://www.tilera.com/solutions/cloud_computing > development system from TILERA: > http://www.tilera.com/products/platforms/TILEmpower_platform
