Re: Sun & Linux

Gregory Alan Bolcer (gbolcer@endeavors.org)
Sat, 05 Dec 1998 10:05:35 -0800

I like this quote:
> Porting Linux to UltraSparc presents a number of challenges, Novak said, such as
> understanding "some of the idiosyncrasies of the Sparc processor,you have to be
> aware when you're running kernel code to make sure you get the most efficient locking
> mechanism for doing spin locks or allocating scarce resources in the OS."

The sparc and especially the UltraSparc does exec context
switching at the hardware level that's very elegant and a lot
of single clock cycle I/O's. Another interesting point, they are
providing loaner machine for testing. One way to get a free
machine. I think I'll ask them for one. I sent an email
to Sun telling them to give away their 64-bit source code as the
operatiing systems market revenues are shrinking even though
the market is growing.

Ron Resnick wrote:
>
> FYI.
>
> Phillips, Jim wrote:
> >
> > Sun's planning on porting Linux to UltraSparc ... there's also some
> > mention of their plans to get 1.2 onto Linux as well.
> >
> > http://www.crn.com/sections/news/820/820sun.asp