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List:       opensuse
Subject:    Re: [opensuse] Legacy hardware support in openSUSE 10.3
From:       Per Jessen <per () opensuse ! org>
Date:       2009-06-16 19:26:38
Message-ID: h18rle$bh4$1 () saturn ! local ! net
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Felix Miata wrote:

> I would expect a single quad core system replacing a quad CPU system
> could save overall, but that's not a majority upgrade scenario. Quad
> CPU systems were never big sellers. Home and office desktops far
> outnumber servers.

Certainly.  We're not, well I wasn't, talking about global savings, it's
a local consideration.  I have no idea whether quad-CPU servers
were "big sellers", but I've got four quad Xeons and one 8-way Xeon to
go if anyone wants them. Another few more quads are being replaced in
the next 3-6 months.  We're late, but as I said conservative. 

> Average power consumption on the desktop is up, even though efficiency
> is up too. RAM often now requires heatsink cooling, another sign of
> increased power consumption, on top of generally increased RAM
> requirements of newer software. 

I don't the efficiency of a desktop PC is really much of a topic.  When
we're talking about computational power per unit-of-energy, it's not
very useful to talk about a system that is idling and in power-save
mode most of the time.  In fact, I have to wonder if average power
consumption on the desktop really is up - I would have thought
power-saving measures have become so much better in just the last 2-3
years, that average consumption would have gone down. 

> Power consumption should figure into the equation whether to take
> equipment out of service, not just whether kernels still support old
> hardware (thread topic). 

Well, the openSUSE kernel CPU support issue has long been cleared up -
Pentium I's are still supported, period.  Wrt power consumtion, I
completely agree - except my experience is that modern systems use less
energy. 


/Per

-- 
Per Jessen, Zürich (18.9 °C)

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