Re: Supercomputer OS's

Frithiof Andreas Jensen wrote:

"Iwo Mergler" <Iwo.Mergler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
You pick an already supported architecture similar
to your own and make a few modifications. It's a few
tens to a few hundred lines of code.

Err ...a tad optimistic that!

In my very recent experience a Linux port to a slightly different
environment is about 8 people's time for a year and thousands of line of
code - mostly test cases though, but also new drivers and customising
things in "sysfs" and /etc/. Boot scripts take a good deal of effort to
get right too. Thousands of emails also to the kernel list because one,
"surprise" will find stuff when testing that has been there for years and
does not work because nobody used it - except the customer that wanted the
port!

8 man-years sounds excessive. Did any of those people
have previous Linux-porting experience? Otherwise a
year of learning curve is realistic. Recent kernels
are a lot easier to port, but take longer to understand.

I suppose I should qualify "Linux port". In my understanding
that means porting the kernel. That usually involves adjusting
a few addresses and rewriting or adapting the low level
assembler stuff. Most new drivers tend to be unnecessary,
as most jellybean hardware is compatible with the same thing
on a different platform. It's not always obvious.

If done correctly, there should be no change necessary
in userspace, not even boot scripts. Your description
sounds like you have included system setup from scratch
and applications in "Linux port". Am I right?

Kind regards,

Iwo

.

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