“Linux long has been criticized for not being able to tap into
the potential power of large servers, but programmers have begun
taking early steps to push it onto these high-end machines.”
“The next version of the core of Linux, the 2.4 kernel, is
up and running on Sun Microsystems’ top-end E10000 server with 24
processors, Linuxcare chief technology officer Dave Sifry said
today. Linuxcare’s Anton Blanchard led the effort, he said, and
several other programmers helped.”
“The milestone, however, is not yet proof of Linux’s readiness
for this high-end environment, which also requires proof of
performance, higher-level software, and the faith of corporate
buyers. It also needs a production-quality release of the 2.4
kernel, which is arriving months later than expected and is still
in beta testing.”
“Getting an operating system to work on these symmetrical
multiprocessing (SMP) computers is a key obstacle as Linux takes on
its progenitor, Unix, as well as Microsoft’s Windows 2000. Solaris,
Sun’s version of Unix, works on computers with up to 105 CPUs, Sun
has said, and Microsoft has just released a version of Windows that
can use 32 CPUs.”