• Hercules Reference Platform 2001-A

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    This defines a hardware platform for running Hercules/390.  This is part  of the New User Documentation Effort.  The platform defined here is an  upper end machine suitable for serious Hercules/390 work.   This  Reference Platform is not offered for sale nor supported by the author.  This article is intended to  provide a frame of reference for planning.

    Vendors may wish to supply components or full systems.  The New User  Documentation Effort does not certify Vendors but Vendors may request  links to their offerings.

    The Reference Platform defines a high-end, home/hobby machine.  I'll add more details on Reference Platforms as new hardware is announced.

    Pre-release Information November 2000 - This system should be available in January/February 2001 for less than US$ 2,500.   Reference Platform 2001 A is a dual 1.5 gHz processor  machine with double speed memory and a IDE RAID IO subsystem.

    Specifications:

       
      770 Chipset Dual Processor motherboard supporting DDR-266 memory

      DDR-266 Memory, minimum 256 Meg.

      AMD Athlon Palamino 1.5 gHz CPU, 2 CPUs installed

      Promise FASTRACK IDE RAID 0/1 Disk controller

      2 45 gig 7200 RPM cached IDE disks, various brands.  I like IBM brand  disks but that is a personal preference.

      CD/DVD, floppy, keyboard, video card, NIC, server case, fans, mouse.
       

    Do not overclock the AMD Athlon Palamino CPUs no matter what the
    hardware discussion boards say.  This is not a gaming machine.

    Hercules Reference Platform 2001-B

    June 2001 Update - As usual, the hardware was late to market and slightly different from the pre-release specs.  At this writing, TYAN makes a dual CPU board that supports the AMD Athlon 1.2 gHz MP CPU.  A system will run US$2,500 or slightly higher depending on options.  Check with local suppliers for availability.  Prices will vary with local market conditions.
     

      TYAN Thunder K7 Dual AMD Motherboard with AMD-760 MP chipset and two AMD Palamino 1.2 gHz Athlon MP CPUs and fans. - $1000

      CORSAIR DDR-266 Memory TYAN certified 512 Meg. - $250

      NMB 460 Watt Power supply TYAN approved - $150

      Large server case - $250

      Promise FASTRACK IDE RAID 0/1 Disk controller

      2 45 gig 7200 RPM cached IDE disks, various brands.

      CD/DVD, floppy, keyboard, video card, mouse.


    I recommend using a top quality server case with lots of fans.  You're building a mainframe.

    The TYAN Thunder K7 board has Dual Ultra160 SCSI ports.  SCSI disks are an alternative to the IDE RAID system.   The TYAN  also includes dual 10/100baseT NICs.

    Caution - the diagram of the CPU jumpers for the Front Side Bus (200 mHz v. 266 mHz) in the TYAN manual are incorrect.   The jumper numbers are correct but the illustration is wrong.  Set the jumpers by the numbers and not by the picture.  Check with your vendor.  You may wish to purchase the motherboard, CPUs, Fans, and CORSAIR DDR-266 memory from the same source and request that they test the board through POST.

    Very Important - Have a sports store or office engraving shop make up an IBM blue plaque with the words HERCULES/390 and affix this to the top of your server chassis using standoffs. Office stores offer door plaques that will give you the "right look".

    At this writing, the TYAN is the only dual CPU MB but boards from ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, and ABIT are expected shortly.  By 1Q2002, this same MB and 2 CPUs should be about $600.

    Related Note from Hercules Engineering.
     

  • > From: Jay Maynard [SMTP:jmaynard@conmicro.cx]

    • > Sent: Friday, December 08, 2000 7:18 AM
    > To:   hercules-390@egroups.com
    > Subject:      Re: [hercules-390] SMP, and Linux, and Herc
    >
    > On Fri, Dec 08, 2000 at 01:10:46AM -0500, Tony Mori wrote:
    > > How many CPU's can Hercules utilize? And Linux? Is it possible to use,
    > > say, a 4-way server with Linux, and have Linux *AND* Herc see all 4
    > > CPU's, and utilize them? ANd what's the best bang for the buck?
    >
    > Hercules can utilize as many CPUs as the host Linux system has. The
    > architectural limit for a single 390 system image is 16 processors;
    > Hercules, by default in 390 mode, will support 6, but that's a single
    > constant in hercules.h. Beyond that, Hercules still gets use out of more
    > processors because it uses a separate thread of execution for every I/O, as
    > well as four constantly-running overhead threads. I normally recommend not
    > defining more emulated CPUs than the host system has less one; this seems to
    > be the sweet spot on the curve, as the I/O and overhead threads share one
    > processor pretty well.
    >
    > 2.2 Linux kernels supposedly scale pretty well to 4 CPUs and not so well to
    > 8; as I understand it, 2.4 will run on 8 well, and scale to 32 fairly well.
    > One of the systems in my lab is a Compaq ProLiant 8500 with 8 PIIX-500s, and
    > it runs a 2.2 Linux quite well.
    >
    > One other item that really makes a difference in performance is hardware
    > RAID. Offloading disk I/O to a smart subsystem really helps performance. One
    > system I've run Hercules on is a ProLiant ML330, a low-end server that can
    > run either regular SCSI or a low-cost RAID controller, and the RAID
    > controller speeds up I/O by a factor of three or four (I haven't done any
    > rigorous measurement, but the difference is quite noticeable).
    >
    > My big development box at home is a ProLiant 6000 with four PPro-200s and
    > hardware RAID, and it's surprisingly snappy. I still recommend an SMP host
    > system over a faster single-CPU system. I also recommend a PPro over a PII
    > or pre-Coppermine PIII; the PII/PIII runs the CPU cache at one-fourth to
    > one-half the CPU speed, and Hercules performance suffers. At one point, I
    > got identical performance from a 4-CPU PPro-200 and a 4-CPU PIIX-450, though
    > I haven't run that test in several months.
    >