[K42-discussion] Re: Possible benefit of running K42 on Cell CBE ...

[Matthew Barrick]

On Dec 22, 2005, at 05:02 Jimi Xenidis wrote:
> If you wanted SPU support then you would have to take the LinuxBPA  
> changes en-masse and update our k42 to use the newer kernel code.   
> Linux is a moving target, so _after_ the current update is complete  
> (which is a background task for us) it may be another few weeks or  few 
> months.
> 
> Another concern is that user apps (the PU component) communicate with  
> the SPU via Linux sysfs.  K42 does not normally use sysfs, so this  
> would take a few weeks to get that interchange correct.

Could we get some more information on the Linux updates that are 
planned?  In particular what version of Linux will the k42 linux tree be 
updated to be close to and what sub-systems will be updated/ignored. I 
understand it's a background task, but if it's possible to get a vague 
time estimate it'd be appreciated.

I'm asking because I'm working on getting basic Infiniband support on 
k42 based the OpenIB project, and lot of their stuff depends on the 
newer kernel stuff, and it sounds like if someone's working on updating 
the Linux tree to something more recent, it'd be best to hold off on my 
work until the update is done.

Thanks,

matthew barrick
barrick at cs.unm.edu