> I don't trust M$ any further than I can throw their
>corporate headquarters, but in this one thing I believe
>because I know from personal experience what that's like
Believe what you like, but I choose to believe not even MS is stupid enough to query for a cpu indentification string and then bluescreen when that doesn't result in "K8". Whats the point of such a check in the first place, if not to display an "incorrect cpu" message ? If you wanted to make sure the installed cpu supports everything needed to run XP64, you check for the capabilities, not the CPUID. If you want to prevent a user from installing it on hardware that is not compliant/tested, you display an error. And if you don't care about either, you don't check, you just assume it runs on Opteron (or anything completely compatible). This makes zero sense.
>The kernel that these distros is based on requires IOMMU, a
>feature in the memory controller / northbridge that allows
>PCI cards to have DMA access to >4 GB of RAM
Linux kernel 2.6.5 has supported software IOMMU for many months, yet distro's based on it, didn't boot Nocona either. What you state is Red Hat's reason to not to endorse their release on Nocona, and I'm sure its a perfectly valid reason, but its not the reason (other) Linux (distro's) doesn't boot (even with less than 4 GB, in which case only it might cause trouble as you pointed out).
>Actually, I haven't heard of a single source yet which
>states this as actually being any sort of a problem for
>anyone.
It is not a big issue, stop pretending I ever claimed that, but it is the most likely reason all existing x64 OS's do not boot Nocona without a patch. And don't tell me you believe every Linux distro as well as windows would implement something as stupid as a CPUID check, and crash if that doesn't return opteron's.
> That's as far as every expert knows. Just try using Google
>for once. The information is out there if you bother to
>look.
.. but it requires interpretation which you seem to lack.
> It's a minor errata requiring an incredibly simple
>workaround that frankly wasn't even going to cause any bugs
>until a program tried to access over 64GB of memory.
Bullshit. DO you claim to know exactly how the VMM does address translation ? The algorithm used to allocate memory ? I also know for fact older versions loaded top-down, so its quite likely this bug would cause windows to fail regardless of the ammount of memory installed.
>Now you're just getting plain stupid. No one ever said that
>the publicly available beta ran on Nocona.
You're the one that said:
And in fact even right now Nocona can run the 64-bit beta
. Considering the context, the disclaimer "publically available" should not have been omitted. Referring to "the 64 bit beta" implies there is only one, and if there is one, it is the current available beta.
As for me being stupid or not knowing, don't be such a jackass, I even mentioned the patched beta runs it, and I should know, I've <i> seen</i> it run.
>No, I'm sorry, but there aren't. The 36/40 bit bug is not
>any sort of a serious impediment. No one is even worried
>about it. It's well documented by now and frankly, no one
>really cares. It's plain ridiculous to even think that
>anyone is worried or impeded by it
Got a reading comprehension problem, don't we ? Reread my post, and please point out where I said or implied it was anything else. And while doing so, try hard to ignore the 5x I pointed out myselve it is indeed a minor issue. Sheesh. But it is by far the most likely reason existing AMD64 OS's do NOT RUN ON NOCONA.
>Do you even know how many ways you're wrong here? I bet you
>don't. I also bet that you don't have a single scrap of
>evidence.
I don't hmm. well, <A HREF="http://www.arnnet.com.au/index.php/id;616404470;fp;1024;fpid;98765" target="_new"> here goes </A>. Maybe the bank of NY is an oem these days ? I also tell you (but expect you not to believe) I've seen Nocona hardware running windows and Yucon at a customer of mine (schlumberger in case you're interested).
>1) Except for software development companies and equipment
>manufacturers (OEMs) there is no one testing this at all.
"this" ? I told you Nocona and windows for it are being tested, that's all I told you. Did I say everyone was proofreading the windows source code and checking the installation procedure for CPUID checks or something ?
For someone who so much loves shouting how stupid I must be, (without providing any evidence to the contrary really), I must say I'm impressed you dare spout nonsense such as:
>The sole exception is that 64-bit software will be using
>twice the memory bandwidth for integers (so on average
>about 1.5x total memory bandwidth) on the same hardware and
>therefore that may cause the memory subsystems to perform
>somewhat slower. Since the P4 core is bandwidth-critical
>it remains to be seen how much this will hinder Intel's
>efforts.
That is probably the dumbest comment I read whole day. Integer don't get twice as long, in 32 bit mode you can process 64 bit integers just as well, and they are just as big. In 64 bit mode, the default data size for integer instructions is still 32 bits. Not a thing changes there.
But if you want your instructions to use 64 bit ints, you need to set the REX prefix which makes the instructions themselves one byte longer, that is where the difference is (and obviously the use of 64 bit pointers)). Codesize increase is less than 5-10%, not anywhere near 1,5x, and has nothing to do with operand size. But someone as clever and all knowing as you surely knew that already.
Anyway, I am gettng a deja vue here. You don't want to discuss anything, you just want to pick a fight, throw around insults and pretend you're all knowing or something. Go waste Xeon's time, he's an easier target and I'm not interested in playing your games. if you're bored, get a hobby, a life.. seek friends or something.
= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my wife. =