On 9/27/2013 6:03 AM, Joel Rees wrote: > On Fri, Sep 27, 2013 at 10:22 AM, Tom H <tomh0...@gmail.com> wrote: >> On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 7:09 AM, Stan Hoeppner <s...@hardwarefreak.com> >> wrote: >>> On 9/26/2013 5:45 AM, Joel Rees wrote: >>>> On Thu, Sep 26, 2013 at 2:05 PM, Stan Hoeppner <s...@hardwarefreak.com> >>>> wrote: >>>>> On 9/25/2013 12:52 PM, Catherine Gramze wrote: >>>> >>>> Stan, joking aside, are there any AMD processors you would recommend >>>> for doing kernel and driver level Android/ARM development in a VM? >>>> >>>> How likely would I be to find such a processor in a netbook or laptop? >>> >>> How likely is one to find a kernel developer doing any real work on a >>> laptop? Throwing a netbook into the question is just silly. > > The reason I ask, Stan, is that I'm preparing to take a class where > I'll be studying Super H assembly language programming, writing device > drivers for an embedded SH3 running a Linux kernel, and such.
I read everything below but my reply will be brief, so going up top with it. Performance options with portables is always limited due to power. A few quick points: 1. If you're going to be compiling anything, cache size trumps clock speed. If a smaller cache roughly equivalent CPU clocks more than ~30% higher than big_cache CPU it becomes a horse race. 2. Do not use an in-order CPU, such as the Atom, regardless of clock speed. The lack of branch prediction, rename registers, etc, will hamstring a compiler. 3. If you're running a hypervisor, low level support such as AMD-V or Intel VT will help. > I'd like to prepare a portable emulation environment for the class, > since I know I'll be wanting to do homework when the lab is not > available. Renasas points to an SH4 emulator by Kawasaki-san that runs > under QEMU, but at times I will likely be debugging the emulator as > well as my own code. And I'll be doing a lot of compiles in the > emulated system. > > I'll be biking to the class some days and walking other days, so I'd > like a 12 inch screen form factor to fit in my bag and not break my > back, which pretty much says netbook. Many netbooks have output for > external monitors, which will help at home, at least. > > At this point, I've been kind of looking at Acer's Aspire (heh) V5-122 > with an AMD A4-1250 and 4G RAM, or a similar V5 with an AMD A6-1450. > I'm trying to figure out whether they support QEMU. If so, I'm > thinking the 4-core A6 will be worth the extra 5000 yen, a pair of > core for the host OS and I/O, and another core for the emulation > environment makes three. > > I'm also looking at an HP dm1-4400, but the processor there is an AMD > E2-1800, which seems to be last year's tech and a little heavier on > battery use. It's only two cores, and only 2G RAM in the version at > the store where I was looking at it (Sofmap in Umeda -- Osaka), but > maybe HP is sturdier than Acer. I need to look at that. > > (I sat on my Lenovo ideapad s100, and now I can only use it with the > external monitor, so I'm a bit sensitive to sturdiness now. Not that I > plan on sitting on any more computers, of course. Should not have > taken the thing to church after programming all Saturday night. And, > no, I have not been running qemu on the ideapad. It's a single-core > Atom. Bleagh.) > >> I'm pretty sure that I've seen a thread where kernel developers (Linus >> included) who were discussing kernel compilation time on laptops. > > Thanks for the data points, Tom. > >> (I've compiled a kernel on a netbook; you'd better have a few hours to >> spare...) > > That's a given. I'm not planning on compiling the kernel every day, > but I will be compiling loadable modules, cross or under emulation, > pretty regularly, at some point > -- > Joel Rees > > Be careful where you see conspiracy. > Look first in your own heart. > > -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/52470aef.1090...@hardwarefreak.com
