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[LI] SGI Linux enhancements



SGI Releases Technology to Form Foundation for Enterprise-Class Linux
Applications

Released Technology Increases Linux Database Performance; Development
Tools Help Facilitate Linux Kernel Development

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA (Dec. 9, 1999) -- Leading the charge to bring
enterprise-class capabilities to the Linux® operating system, SGI
(NYSE: SGI) today announced its recent release of several performance
technology features to the Open Source Software community.
Additionally, SGITM has released tools to enable Linux developers to
greatly simplify the process for resolving bugs in enterprise Linux
installations.

Access to these features and tools forms the foundation of an
enterprise-class platform for accelerating the availability of Linux
database applications sought by industry-leading vendors.

    "SGI is committed to helping Linux evolve to meet the
    challenges presented by today's computing market," said
    Jan Silverman, vice president, Computer Systems Business
    Unit, SGI. "Offering this level of technology enhancements
    makes Linux more attractive to developers and end users
    and leads to a stronger, more capable operating system." 

Powerful Performance Enhancers 

To facilitate optimizing database performance on enterprise-class
Linux systems, recently released SGI technology includes support for
database machines with large disk farms and efficient, parallel access
to I/O. These features are based upon the company's industry-leading
experience and expertise in developing large multiprocessor machines.

The key performance-enhancing components are: 

Parallelization of the I/O path. The entire I/O path has been
optimized to enable simultaneous requests to be executed independently
on a multiprocessor. These optimizations make it possible for large
numbers of disks to be kept active.

POSIX-compliant Asynchronous I/O Interfaces. These new interfaces
allow an application to issue multiple I/O requests in parallel to
ensure maximum throughput from large numbers of disks typically
attached to database installations.

Direct Access to Disks. Databases frequently lay their data out
directly on disks to avoid the overhead of filesystems. SGI has
enhanced the existing raw I/O implementation in Linux (originally
developed by Stephen Tweedie of Red Hat) to allow I/O requests to be
handled in parallel on multiprocessors. Also, the data can be
read/written directly to the user address space, without the need for
data copying.

Improved Kernel Support and Development Tools 

SGI has leveraged its considerable experience in developing and
supporting multiprocessor UNIX® systems to provide a large number of
tools to help accelerate the development of Linux and to efficiently
diagnose problems at customer sites. These tools include the
following:

Linux Kernel Crash Dump. LCRASH enables the kernel to save the memory
image to disk in the case of system failure. New tools enable later
analysis of the cause, thus minimizing system downtime. While this is
a normal customer expectation for commercial UNIX systems, this is new
for Linux.

Built-in Kernel Debugger. The KDB tool greatly eases and thus
accelerates Linux kernel development. KDB provides many of the
debugging facilities (breakpoints, back trace, single step, etc.)
considered fundamental to application development, but until now
unavailable to Linux kernel developers.

Kernel GNU Debugger. The KGDB extension to the kernel allows
source-level debugging of one Linux system from another over a serial
line or Ethernet using the standard debugger.

Performance analysis tools. SGI has added numerous performance
analysis tools, including kernel profiling, lock metering and kernel
event tracing. These tools greatly enhance the process of identifying
the causes of performance problems in the kernel.

Instant Availability 

All of the technology features and development tools, in addition to
details on the full release, are readily available by downloading from
http://oss.sgi.com/projects/sgilinux11/.

About SGI 

SGI provides a broad range of high-performance computing and advanced
graphics solutions that enable customers to understand and conquer
their toughest computing problems. Headquartered in Mountain View,
Calif., with offices worldwide, the company is located on the Web at
www.sgi.com.

SGI and the SGI logo are trademarks of Silicon Graphics, Inc. Linux is a
registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. UNIX is a registered trademark in the
U.S. and other countries licensed exclusively through X/Open Company Limited.
All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective
owners.
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