Dear Sun Manager,
On Fri Apr 12 10:16:49 1996, I submitted the following question;
> From barnett@zycad.com Fri Apr 12 10:16:49 1996
> To: sun-managers@ra.mcs.anl.gov
> Subject: Question re 64bit processors, 8G process
> Cc: barnett
> Status: RO
>
> Dear Sun Managers,
>
> (Question as it was put to me by my engineering staff)
>
> Is there a 64bit architecture computer system that can handle an
> 8Gig process?
> Any information regarding any OS, any architecture would be very
> helpful. Pointers to relevant vendors or literature would be
> helpful as well.
>
> Should I summarize the answer?
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Mike Barnett barnett@zycad.com
> Zycad Corporation
> 47100 Bayside Parkway 510/623-4453 FAX 510/623-4550
> Fremont, Ca. 94538 Systems Administration Department
It took a while to sort through most of the answers.
But, for the question, "So what are you guys running over there?"
Let me just say, keep your ear to the rail; LightSpeed is coming
your way.
The SUMMARY is coming up, followed by my thanks to specific people
and lastly, an abbreviated list of actual responses to my actual question.
----- SUMMARY: -----
DEC AlphaServer 8400 5/300 System.
HAL Fujitsu HALstation 300 Series ( a Solaris solution with EDA! ).
SGI was suggested but something is up w/ their web pages.
Check the following WWW pages;
http://www.digital.com/
Look for Alpha clusters at www.dec.com.
See http://www.digital.com/info/alphaserver/ for details.
No spec available on AlphaServer 8200
http://www.hal.com/
See http://www.hal.com for details.
Open up Products and Solutions,
There you go; A Solaris solutuion.
http://www.sgi.com/
I think the Products & Solutions page is under construction.
http://www.linux.org/
Yikes! Good luck... There's a lot of info there!
Most intriguing answer came from Daniel.Blander@ACSacs.com;
Stay tuned at "www.sun.com"
http://www.acsacs.com
----- END OF SUMMARY -----
Thanks to to everyone who responded to my question;
jfs@fluent.com
orr@ccsmtp2.eccs.com
dewicki@bns102.bng.ge.com
uvaghela@mpc-uk.com
hurt@ionet.net
nino@well.ox.ac.uk
nleroy@norland.idcnet.com
lattice.com!jayl@pdx.oneworld.com
kevin@uniq.com.au
bwalker@musings.com
george@dbms.com
edd@NS.AIC.NET
cherkus@fastball.unimaster.com
Daniel.Blander@ACSacs.com
ca@mine.informatik.uni-kiel.de
Here are the responses to the above question.
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>From jfs@fluent.com
Take a look at Digital Equipment Corp's Alpha systems. They have
64bit systems that can take upto 14Mb of RAM in them, with
correspondingly sized processes. http://www.digital.com will give you
more info.
I guess Sun offers something similar, but I'm too new to Sun hardware
and software to be able to help you.
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>From orr@ccsmtp2.eccs.com Fri Apr 12 12:41:05 1996
I have no idea. However, the limitation will be
in the O/S not the CPU.
The question is, what are your guys working on,
Windows NT rel. 4.0?!!!!
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>From uvaghela@mpc-uk.com Fri Apr 12 13:06:32 1996
It's not just the 64-bit processor but also 64-bit operating system might be
required to handle such a process. (32bit unix OS had maxfilesize limit of
2GB). And at present I believe the only 64-bit OS is DEC's Digital/Unix -
formerly DEC OSF/1.
Hope this is use ful.
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>From hurt@ionet.net Fri Apr 12 14:45:57 1996
Would you please forward me a copy off all messages recieved. I have
an intrest in this too.
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>From nino@well.ox.ac.uk Fri Apr 12 16:08:13 1996
*** At least 2: Irix (Silicon Graphics) and Dec Unix (Digital). Both are
full 64bit hardware architecture *with* the 64-bit operating system. As
to the size of the process, that will depend on the available (real,
virtual) memory...
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>From nleroy@norland.idcnet.com Fri Apr 12 16:36:29 1996
Answer: Yes. I know that the Alpha can do that type of thing. I know
that Linux on the Alpha runs with a 48-bit address space, which translates
to a whole *&#&#-load of address space. I'm not sure about OSF-1 (isn't
that what it's called?) that DEC itself sells.
You may want to start by contacting DEC, or, for Linux, you may want
to start looking at http://www.linux.org/
If you can't find anything there, let me know, and I'm sure that I
can dig something up...
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>From lattice.com!jayl@pdx.oneworld.com Fri Apr 12 17:18:35 1996
Unless *very* exotic systems are an option, there are only two
possibilities that I'm aware of: Alpha-Dec Unix and HAL-SunOS+.
Contact info at www.dec.com and www.hal.com.
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>From kevin@uniq.com.au Fri Apr 12 18:23:49 1996
The operative question is why you think you need 8GB of process? Using
mmap() you can manage a smaller address space well.
At any rate, I believe that the Cray box does this quite well.
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>From bwalker@musings.com Fri Apr 12 20:54:42 1996
HaL Computer provides probably the best 64bit arch. at the present
time. Their machine works, is Solaris compatible, and is fast. They
have a configuration with 3GB of memory which is geared towards
applications like yours.
A good box overall..
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>From george@dbms.com Fri Apr 12 21:38:57 1996
> Is there a 64bit architecture computer system that can handle an
> 8Gig process?
An EIGHT GIGABYTE PROCESS?! ... when did you learn Emacs? ;-)
OK, if you've got the physical and virtual memory,
2^64 = 18446744073709551616
which is well over 8 GB. One would hope that an OS built for a 64-bit
processor would have its upper limits set accordingly.
So what are you guys running over there Mike?
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>From edd@NS.AIC.NET Sat Apr 13 01:42:59 1996
Look for Alpha clusters at www.dec.com.
Ed
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>From cherkus@fastball.unimaster.com Sat Apr 13 06:48:02 1996
The Digital Alpha systems have supported this since they've come out.
I personally have seen 6GB processes, and have heard they can go much
larger. See http://www.digital.com/info/alphaserver/ for details.
Also, I have seen that HAL talks of a full 64 bit, SPARC compatible
system. See http://www.hal.com for details.
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>From Daniel.Blander@ACSacs.com Sat Apr 13 10:11:04 1996
In four days you will have an answer.....("yes" is the
first part....)
Stay tuned at "www.sun.com"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Daniel Blander =8^)
Sr. Systems Engineer Applied Computer Solutions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Phone: (714) 842.7800 Fax: (714) 842.8299
Email: Daniel.Blander@acsacs.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Official Applied Computer Solutions Home Page
and Tech Tip of the Week:
http://www.acsacs.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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>From ca@mine.informatik.uni-kiel.de Sun Apr 14 08:19:10 1996
Maybe Hal-OS ?
Check out http://www.hal.com/
Regards,
Claus Assmann
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