11 Jun
2020
11 Jun
'20
7:03 a.m.
On Thu, 11 Jun 2020 at 14:45, David Brownlee <abs at absd.org> wrote:
The big issue with the Hydra was its lack of cache coherency between
processors, which made conventional SMP somewhat... challenging. You
could do very cool multiprocessor stuff with it, just not in a
conventional SMP capable OS (I remember talking to someone trying to
use it under NetBSD at the time :)
Oh my word!
It reminds me of the late-generation MacOS-license-programme
multiprocessor Mac clones such as the Daystar Genesis MP:
https://everymac.com/systems/daystar/mp_plus/genesis_mp466_plus.html
https://everymac.com/systems/daystar/mp_plus/genesis_mp932_plus.html
A multiprocessor machine dedicated solely to running a
single-processor OS... so that the extra CPUs could only be used by a
handful of specialised apps, such as image filters.
I think the Mac clones were basically designed to run a couple of
specific Adobe Photoshop filters very very fast and basically nothing
else.
The chap that wrote the wonderful XPostFacto tool that got early
versions of Mac OS X running on old, unsupported models of Mac did get
OS X booting on some of the clones, but only on 1 CPU. It's a pity --
a maxed-out 4-CPU MP might have been a rather nice box for running
MacOS 10.2 or 10.3 on.
https://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter/XPostFacto/Framework.cfm?page=XPostFac…
--
Liam Proven ? Profile: https://about.me/liamproven
Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? gMail/gTalk/gHangouts: lproven at gmail.com
Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn/Flickr: lproven ? Skype: liamproven
UK: +44 7939-087884 ? ?R (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053