OSNews: Linux on the AMD Opteron: Are We Ready?

“Early last week I received an AMD Opteron 240 and an Asus SK8N
motherboard. I was so anxious to get Linux on it I could hardly sit
still… A week later, Linux is on it, in 32 bit mode only, and my
hard drive has informed me that if I reinstall again it is going to
go on strike.

“I will first describe the hardware in general terms, since it
has been reviewed in detail at various locations on the net, and
then I will go into the good, the bad and the ugly of running Linux
for the AMD64, aka Hammer, aka Opteron.

“The AMD Opteron chip is a marvel of silicon technology no
doubt. The first thing we note is that unlike the AMD XP series,
the die is concealed in a metal casing which covers almost the
entire package. Unlike the previous CPU’s, there is no ‘notch in
the pin layout’ on the bottom, but a tiny notch in the package
itself with an even smaller arrow pointing to the pin that
corresponds to the corner of the ZIP (Zero Insertion Force) socket
for proper alignment…”

Complete
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