Re: Transputer Development System, 2006? (aka Sony PS/3 runs multi-core Linux)

[tjoccam@xxxxxxxxxxx]

Question: Would the proposed interpreter or TDS lookalike run in kernel
space or user space from the Linux point of view? I can see arguments for
both. If in user space, it's probably easier to write and better
supported, but slow and subject to vagaries and lack of CSP robustness of
the kernel. If in kernel space, it has to deal with weirdness like the
fact that the Linux 2.6 kernel compiler nulls out any division of 64-bit
integers (though this may not be true in the Cell; it was discovered, on a
project I was working on, to be true in the X86 series).

Larry Dickson

> Hello,
>
> Indeed I am working on getting occam-pi running on the cell.  Aside from
> yellow dog, I have read that redhats FC5 (with some cell specific bits)
> is downloadable from sony.  Thanks for the pointer to the Yellow Dog
> site, I am not the biggest redhat fan so when I do get around to it
> running
> yellowdog could be a viable alternative!
>
> I do agree though, the PS3 would be a great development system to have,
> once they start selling it in Europe.  It definitely beats the overpriced
> blade servers that IBM is selling....
>
> If I remember correctly the versions of the cell shipped for the PS3
> will have one or even two of the 'spu' vector processing cores disabled
> in the
> actual units in order to increase the yield when manufacturing the
> processors.  Still 6 or 7 cores is still nice to play with.
>
> I can't wait to get my hands on one.  For now it'll still just be the
> cell system simulator.
>
> Glad to hear people are interested though :).
>
> Cheers,
> Damian
>
> Matt Jadud wrote:
>> Hi Andrew,
>>
>> Damian Dimmich at is working towards this; he had a paper in CPA 2006
>> that explores just this issue, and has a working port of the
>> Transterpreter (a small, portable runtime for occam-pi) to the Cell.
>>
>> http://www.transterpreter.org/papers/dimmich-jacobsen-jadud-cpa-2006.pdf
>>
>> Running on top of Yellow Dog would be the easy way in; Damian is
>> exploring code distribution and code generation for multi-core targets
>> like the Cell, and (currently) has 9 separate instances of the runtime
>> environment on a single CPU.
>>
>> See the paper for more details; also, since Damian is on this list, he
>> might have additional comments or be able to address more specific
>> questions that you or others might have.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Matt
>>
>> Andrew Delin wrote:
>>> Team, I thought this was interesting.
>>>
>>> Why might we be interested in the release of Sony's PS/3 games console?
>>>
>>> Because it contains a multi-core Cell processor - and can run Linux.
>>>
>>> Fred and others - I am wondering if it is possible to release a KROC
>>> that targets this platform and takes advantage of the multiple
>>> processors inside the new Sony console. This would give a true
>>> parallel machine to run Occam-Pi. It could be used as a modern 'TDS'
>>> with several cores to run on.
>>>
>>> Nine cores is very tempting - and rather cheap. I understand the YD
>>> Linux distribution doesn't fully use all cores, but perhaps an
>>> Occam-Pi build could? If we can piggy back on the interest in Linux,
>>> perhaps we might get more interest in the process-oriented-design
>>> philosophy we've discussed on this group.
>>>
>>
>
>
>