Information Technology Reference
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The column labeled
rset
lists the processor set's name. The quantity of CPUs in
the processor set can be changed with the following command:
GZ#
poolcfg -dc 'transfer 1 from pset pset_default to pset SUNWtmp_web'
Before leaving the topic of resource pools, let's consider the acronym “CPU”
and the kernel's interpretation of it. For decades, “CPU” meant the chip that
ran machine instructions, one at a time. The operating system created a process,
branched execution to it, and cleaned up when it was done. A multiprogramming
OS ran one process for a small period of time, then switched the CPU to another
process if one was ready to run.
Multiprocessing systems required a more sophisticated scheduler because that tool
was responsible for choosing a CPU for the next runnable process on the run queue.
Now we have multicore processors and multithreaded cores. Multicore proces-
sors are simply multiple CPUs implemented on one piece of silicon, although some
models provide some shared resources for those cores, such as a large bank of
shared cache. Multithreaded cores improve throughput performance by duplicat-
ing some—but not all—of a core's circuitry within the core. To take the most
advantage of those hardware threads, the operating system must be able to ef-
ficiently schedule processes onto the threads, preferably with some knowledge of
the CPU's internal workings and memory architecture.
Oracle Solaris has a long history of efficiently scheduling hundreds of processes
on dozens of processors, going back to the E10000 with its 64 single-core CPUs.
Because of its scalability, Solaris was modified to schedule processes on any hard-
ware thread in the system, maximizing the total throughput of the platform.
Unfortunately, this scheme can be a bit confusing when configuring resource
pools, because each type of CPU has its own type and amount of hardware thread-
ing. Each also has its own per-thread performance characteristics.
Table 6.5 lists various CPUs that will run Oracle Solaris 10 and core and thread
data. It also shows some sample systems.
Table 6.5
Multithreaded CPUs
CPU
No.
Cores
per
Chip
No.
Threads
per
Core
Sample Systems
Model
Max. No.
CPU Chips
Max. No.
Threads
Form Factor
SPARC64-VII
4
2
Sun M9000
64
512
Multicabinet
server
UltraSPARC-T2+
8
8
Sun T5440
4
256
4RU server
Opteron 8384
4
1
Sun X4600
8
32
4RU server
Xeon X5570
4
2
Sun X4270
2
16
2RU server
Xeon W3580
4
1
Sun Ultra 27
1
4
Workstation
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