Re: [ydl-gen] Linux yellow dog manual for dummies

I haven't done much with YDL in some time as I've changed jobs, but  
I'd just like to chime in that several years ago that the PPC Linux's  
( YDL for Mac, full RedHat/SuSE on some IBM OpenPower720 hardware)  
was running rings around the equivalent x86 -or- Alpha based  
platforms we were doing some work on.  Tried to get my bosses &  
customers more interested in it and hit the wall of 'but it isn't  
x86'.  <sigh>.  At the time, a direct comparison of the *same* base  
code on a Mac XServe G5 running on YDL4 vice OS X 10.3 had the YDL  
code twice as fast as the OS X code.  Lots of double precision  
floating point math, and multiple processes (not threads)  
communicating via shared memory.  We would routinely max out any box  
we were running on.

-Rob

On Dec 25, 2009, at 2:37 PM, Warren Nagourney wrote:

> Thanks, Derick.
>
> Although this is a YDL forum, I am afraid to say that there is no  
> comparison between any linux on PPC and OS X. The former simply  
> doesn't have the software base that I need. I used to think that it  
> would be faster than OS X, but after a few installations of linux  
> on Apple computers, I discovered that OS X wins hands down in the  
> speed area as well. I think that linux is optimized for x86 and of  
> course things like flash are only available on x86 linux (I hate  
> flash, but it unfortunately has become a standard for internet  
> video). There are still some PPC optimizations in OS X apps and  
> maybe even some Altivec usage (which allows Quicktime to smoothly  
> run at 1080p on my PPC machines). The tasks involved in writing my  
> book would have been enormously greater if I had used linux instead  
> of OS X.
>
> I notice an increasing dominance of ARM in low power portable  
> devices. This is unfortunate, since ARM simply doesn't have the  
> computational power that PPC has - I am not sure it even has a  
> floating point data type. It is too bad that IBM did such a poor  
> job of promoting PPC; we will need to reinvent the wheel with ARM  
> when we could have had advanced multi-purpose chips with low power  
> consumption from the PPC manufacturers (such as PA semi, which  
> Apple bought and converted to ARM).
>
> Anyway, the improvement in the performance of Apple products since  
> the switch has been less than stellar, much less than expected from  
> Moore's law. My 4 year old G5 has a 1.15 GHz memory bus and an 16x  
> dual layer superdrive, which is very competitive with the best that  
> Apple can come up with now (for reasonable prices). It cost much  
> less than a current machine and doesn't require a several thousand  
> dollar investment in software, which I would need to make if I use  
> one of Apple's intel superboxes.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Warren Nagourney
>
> On Dec 24, 2009, at 2:28 PM, Derick Centeno wrote:
>
>> You may want to know that you may find decent parts for your system
>> from http://macsales.com/
>>
>> I think we may have to really keep our PowerPC running for longer  
>> than
>> that although I did hear of someone developing a multicore PowerPC
>> laptop a month or so ago.  I've got to search for who this fellow is
>> again as I lost track, but I did hear of a fellow who created a  
>> working
>> Cell based laptop which ran the GameOS and had the OtherOS option.
>> Pretty neat!
>>
>> Caveat:  If you replace the power supply or other support parts you
>> shouldn't have trouble running YDL from it.  Be careful regarding  
>> other
>> components however such as DVD drives: if those go it may be wiser to
>> consider an external DVD drive in that situation.  I'm unsure if  
>> anyone
>> we knew remains at Fixstars from TSS; it may not be so easy to get  
>> the
>> kind of support we became accustomed to.  In any case, I'd advise you
>> to consider reviewing what notations remain regarding their  
>> advisories
>> regarding which hardware works with YDL and which do not.  As best I
>> recall, the past emphasis (by TSS) was to support original Apple  
>> parts.
>>
>> So the problems to watch for may not be RAM as much as internal
>> associated devices, such as a newer hard drive or modem or something
>> similar.  It may be better to just get an HD which resides on a PCI
>> card which your system should recognize with no problem as an  
>> external
>> system; I don't think such a drive would be able to be booted from
>> within YDL.  It would be interesting to try that out as a concept
>> though.
>>
>> Anyway enjoy and all the best!!
>>
>> On Thu, 24 Dec 2009 13:57:49 -0800
>> Warren Nagourney <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks, Derick. I  still love the PPC architecture and recently
>>> bought an Apple dual core 2.3 GHz G5 for very little money and am
>>> finding it to be absolutely as fast as I could ever hope for. I will
>>> keep it for the next 3-5 years (assuming I can keep the power supply
>>> running) and maybe then, the dominance of x86 may have lessened (it
>>> can't last forever!).
>>>
>>> Merry Christmas and Happy 2010,
>>>
>>> Warren N
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> =========
>>
>> Refranes/Popular sayings:
>> The Taino say:No hay mal que por bien no venga.
>> There is no evil out of which good cannot blossom.
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