x86-64 box

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Thu, Jun 09, 2005 at 11:20:54PM -0400, Ken O. Burtch wrote:
> I don't know if this has been mentioned, but you'd probably get a bigger
> performance boost by using a SMP kernel rather than recompiling a
> non-SMP kernel for AMD.  SMP (Symmetric Multiprocessing) will take
> advantage of hyperthreaded processors and you should always install an
> SMP kernel on a modern computer.
> 
> On Fedora, for example, there's not SMP kernel option in the installer
> but there is a SMP kernel included on the CDs for you to install
> manually.

AMD doesn't have a hyperthreading processor.  They do have dual core if
you somehow manage to get your hands on one.

On the other hand an smp kernel doesn't seem to ever hurt for most
machines so it doesn't really matter.  I have seen the ltmodem driver
fail to work on smp kernels even on single cpu machines, so for laptops,
stick with the single cpu kernel if you are using a winmodem and care to
have it work with the binary only drivers.  Apparently the coders of
binary only drivers don't understand locking. :)

Lennart Sorensen
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