Which install ?

[Erik Trulsson]

On Mon, Mar 09, 2009 at 02:15:25PM -0400, Michael Powell wrote:
> Erik Trulsson wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, Mar 09, 2009 at 11:25:06AM -0500, Darryl Hoar wrote:
> >> Greetings,
> >> I just purchased an older rack mounted supermicro server.  It is running
> >> CentOS, but I want to install Freebsd on it.
> >> The server has (2) Xeon processors.  Which download should I use ?  i386
> >> ???
> >> 
> > 
> > If it is an older server then i386 is probably the right version to use.
> > The recent processors from Intel that use the 'Xeon' name also support
> > amd64, but older ones did not.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> 
> If memory serves, the first Xeon to be 64 bit was the Nocona. Xeons prior to 
> that were 32 bit and came in OLGA 603 sockets. In early 2001 they were 1.4 
> to 1.7GHz units, and later that year the speeds ramped up.

There have been many 'Xeon' processors before that.  The first ones were the
Pentium II Xeon for Slot 2 and ran at a most impressive 400 MHz.  There have
been many variants after that using Slot 2, Socket 603, Socket 604,
Socket 775, Socket 771, and probably some more socket type which I have
missed.  The Slot 2 and Socket 603 models do not have 64-bit support. Some
of the Socket 604 models have 64-bit support, while I believe all the Socket
775 and Socket 771 models have 64-bit support.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Xeon_microprocessors for what
looks like a fairly complete list of them all, which should illustrate
fairly well why it is pretty much meaningless to just say that you have
a 'Xeon' processor.



-- 
<Insert your favourite quote here.>
Erik Trulsson
ertr1013 at student.uu.se