hi tobias thx for your feedback you're right - i was assuming that tiles are built upon ARM architecture but i was wrong it's more a MIPS architecture but still not 100% guess that explains why chris metcalf did a selfstanding arch in linux and yes - gcc 4.4 is the first gcc version supporting tilera instruction set regarding business interest... yes and no first i would like to push openbsd to its limits on a massive multicore architecture - and in a business context: we have very expensive loadbalancers/proxies/webfilters for which i would be glad to show alternatives using OpenBSD thx for thint towards cavium - sounds interresting.. thx /pat
On Sep 26, 2010, at 13:30, Tobias Ulmer wrote: > 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
