NUMA

[gaf at blu.org (Jerry Feldman)]

On Thursday 10 March 2005 2:01 pm, Gregory Boyce wrote:

> I believe that NUMA systems are generally large scale SMP boxes rather
> than multiple distinct computers.  NUMA setups have an idea of memory
> being local to a particular processor rather than just being general
> system memory.
>
> This allows you to have removable modules for the computer with a CPU and
> memory included on it in order to dynamically scale your system.  The
> modules plug into a high speed backplane, in some cases allowing for hot
> swapping of components.
>
> I believe the systems themselves need to be wired for NUMA, and the
> system bios needs to support it in some fashion.  Even if ethernet was
> fast enough, I don't believe the systems would be able to run the single
> OS across the multiple systems required.
>
> Maybe there's some way of running a NUMA emulator over MOSIX cluster or
> something.
>
> I did find at least a bit of useful information here:
> http://lse.sourceforge.net/numa/faq/
Actually, this is not entirely true. NUMA can be implemented within a 
multiple CPU system, such as the HP SuperDome systems where there a a 
number of processors on a single board with memory, and multiple boards in 
the system, or a tightly coupled cluster of separate systems all of whom 
might share some memory. 
-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix user group
http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9
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