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Linus Torvalds moves towards AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X platform
Apparently it is high profile news, as any media outlet is reporting about it. There has been a disturbance in the Force as someone went AMD after being Intel-exclusive for 15 years. Linus Torvalds , the creator of the Linux kernel, updated his PC with an AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X
Yep, he performed an rm -rf "Intel". This is what he wrote about it in a post on the occasion of the release of Linux 5.7 rc7 :
“In fact, the biggest excitement this week for me was just that I upgraded my main machine, and for the first time in about 15 years, my desktop isn't Intel-based. No, I didn't switch to ARM yet, but I'm now rocking an AMD Threadripper 3970x. My 'allmodconfig' test builds are now three times faster than they used to be, which doesn't matter so much right now during the calming down period, but I will most definitely notice the upgrade during the next merge window. ”
Torvalds didn't release any more details about its new setup, but the 3970X is undoubtedly a big heart for its system. Featuring 32 cores and 64 threads with a base frequency of 3.7 GHz and a boost of up to 4.5GHz , manufactured under TSMC's 7nm FinFET process , this Threadripper undoubtedly has all the necessary power for any load you want to run.
We're sure that AMD is happy about news like this.
NVIDIA reponds to Linus Torvals Remarks - 06/20/2012 11:03 AM
The statement follows on this reaction from the man: Supporting Linux is important to NVIDIA, and we understand that there are people who are as passionate about Linux as an open source platform as we...
Linus Torvalds tells NVIDIA to go fuck itself - 06/18/2012 10:53 AM
Wowzers ... Linux creator Linus Torvalds didn't have kind words for NVIDIA when speaking at an event at the Aalto Center for Entrepreneurship in Otaniemi, Finland on June 14, 2012. While NVIDIA does m...
Richard Nutman
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Joined: 2018-08-30
#5792494 Posted on: 05/26/2020 10:40 AM
Compiling is ridiculously easy to parallelize. Back when I was in games we used this tool called Incredibuild, which was like distributed compiling. The whole team installed it, and when you compiled, it used every idle core on the network to compile the code. Typical full rebuild times were slashed to 1/20th the time.
But it's worth pointing out compilers don't use multiple threads, you just run multiple instances of the compiler and the build system assigns each copy a different file to work on. This means you can scale it from 4 cores to 100's of cores really easy. The limit is just disk IO and memory bandwidth.
Compiling is ridiculously easy to parallelize. Back when I was in games we used this tool called Incredibuild, which was like distributed compiling. The whole team installed it, and when you compiled, it used every idle core on the network to compile the code. Typical full rebuild times were slashed to 1/20th the time.
But it's worth pointing out compilers don't use multiple threads, you just run multiple instances of the compiler and the build system assigns each copy a different file to work on. This means you can scale it from 4 cores to 100's of cores really easy. The limit is just disk IO and memory bandwidth.
Turanis
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Posts: 1779
Joined: 2014-08-15
#5792501 Posted on: 05/26/2020 11:20 AM
Look at this beauty build,AMD TheadRipper 3970X on MSI Creator TRX40.
Compiling Linux kernel(Arch distro) in
(Ooops Intel Core cpus)
Look at this beauty build,AMD TheadRipper 3970X on MSI Creator TRX40.
Compiling Linux kernel(Arch distro) in
24s
.(Ooops Intel Core cpus)
schmidtbag
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Posts: 7144
Joined: 2012-11-10
#5792548 Posted on: 05/26/2020 02:39 PM
Linus is very nitpicky and the kind of person to just make his own variations/adaptations when he doesn't like what he has to deal with (this is how Linux itself, as well as git, came to be). Ryzen isn't exactly known to be problem-free; I'm sure he stuck with Intel for so long because it's such a no-fuss platform. Ryzen today is probably stable enough where he feels it is safe to use, but, he's still probably going to find gripes. This is good, because that means he'll probably write his own patches.
Well, he is a millionaire, so I don't think spending that much on a CPU which his entire job revolves around is much of an expense at all.
As others have pointed out, compiling itself isn't multi-threaded, but modern compilers do readily take advantage of as many cores as you can offer for each file to be compiled (and the Linux kernel has a lot of files). That being said, I'm actually surprised he didn't go for the 3990X, which can compile the whole kernel in about 22 seconds. Even 16c/32t will take over a minute.
So - I wouldn't consider getting such a CPU if you're not a serious developer, but otherwise it's just about the best choice of a CPU to get if time=money for you.
Linus is very nitpicky and the kind of person to just make his own variations/adaptations when he doesn't like what he has to deal with (this is how Linux itself, as well as git, came to be). Ryzen isn't exactly known to be problem-free; I'm sure he stuck with Intel for so long because it's such a no-fuss platform. Ryzen today is probably stable enough where he feels it is safe to use, but, he's still probably going to find gripes. This is good, because that means he'll probably write his own patches.
That is a 2200€ CPU and I thought that 3950X was a bit hard to justify as it's a bit over 800€. I wonder what kind of cooling he went with? Those 32 cores will produce quite a bit heat... I have not been following, do compilers actually support 32 cores?
Well, he is a millionaire, so I don't think spending that much on a CPU which his entire job revolves around is much of an expense at all.
As others have pointed out, compiling itself isn't multi-threaded, but modern compilers do readily take advantage of as many cores as you can offer for each file to be compiled (and the Linux kernel has a lot of files). That being said, I'm actually surprised he didn't go for the 3990X, which can compile the whole kernel in about 22 seconds. Even 16c/32t will take over a minute.
So - I wouldn't consider getting such a CPU if you're not a serious developer, but otherwise it's just about the best choice of a CPU to get if time=money for you.
BReal85
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#5792563 Posted on: 05/26/2020 03:54 PM
As far as I know, they are changing, but they are making their own processor.
Good one of the computer gods has turned to AMD. Now we just have to wait when Apple realises this too and makes the change from Intel.
As far as I know, they are changing, but they are making their own processor.
Click here to post a comment for this news story on the message forum.
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They are already considering options. In 2018 they have said they want to move away from Intel towards their own designed chips, and in 2019 they were already testing notebooks with Ryzen mobile CPUs. Competition is good for business, opening up new possibilities, as always.
I wonder that Torvalds didn't even rant about Intel this time... but I know he doesn't like Intel's vulnerabilities either (I believe he dropped a comment in that regard last year).