Moblin v2.0 is Multicore Ready

Posted by Gaston Hillar @ 04:56:PM | October 8, 2009

Moblin v2.0 for Intel Atom Processor based netbooks is already available. Developers with Linux experience will find it easy to target this new attractive platform. However, many developers have many questions related to the multicore support offered this new operating system.

This post is the result of more than 50 e-mails in the last two weeks, asking a very similar question. Instead of answering 50 times the same questions, I promised a detailed post on Go Parallel talking about the multicore possibilities offered by Moblin v2.0.

Most modern Atom processors offer Hyper-Threading. I've already talked about some experiences in my previous post "Downsizing Multicore Programming Skills to Take Advantage of Intel Atom" and the e-mails with questions increased after its publication. When you check the microprocessors' specifications, the manufacturer explains that the operating system and the applications have to be optimized to take advantage of Hyper-Threading. What about Moblin v2.0? Does it support multicore? Is it able to scale when more cores are available? There is already a netbook manufacturer using two Intel Atom processors, creating a multiprocessor netbook. Is Moblin v2.0 able to support this configuration?

The answer to all these questions is very simple. Moblin v2.0 uses a Linux kernel. Therefore, checking the Linux kernel version, I'll be able to answer all these questions. Opening a Terminal window and typing:

uname -sr

You can get the complete kernel name and its release number.

The result will display:

Linux 2.6.30.3-4.1.moblin2-netbook

as shown in the following:

Moblin v2.0 displaying the Linux kernel name and release.

This means that we have an operating system using a Linux 2.6.30.3-4.1 kernel for Moblin v2.0. You can check all the features supported in the same release for the generic kernel in http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/. Nonetheless, my focus is on the multicore and Hyper-Threading support. This kernel version has full support for multicore and Hyper-Threading, therefore, you have a multiprocessor capable kernel. Moblin v2.0 scheduler can work with 2 or more logical cores. If you install Moblin v2.0 in a netbook with more than one Intel Atom processor, it will be able to take full advantage of all the available logical cores.

You can also run the following command to get the kernel:

uname -v

You can get the detailed version information.

The result will display:

#1 SMP PREEMPT Mon Jul 27 12:26:15 UTC 2009

as shown in the following picture:

Moblin v2.0 displaying the kernel's detailed version information.

It is very clear that the kernel offers SMP support. Does it recognize the underlying hardware, with Hyper-Threading enabled? It's also easy to check it.

Opening a Terminal window and typing:

lscpu

You can get the detailed information about the logical (hardware threads) and physical cores detected by Moblin v2.0.

The result will display:

Architecture: i686
CPU(s): 2
Thread(s) per core: 2
Core(s) per socket: 1
CPU socket(s): 1
Vendor ID: GenuineIntel
CPU family: 6
Model: 28
Stepping: 2
CPU MHz: 800.000
L1d cache: 24K
L1i cache: 32K
L2 cache: 512K

You can see it in the following picture:

Moblin v2.0 displaying the information about the Intel Atom processor with its 2 logical cores (hardware threads).

This means that the CPU is running at 800 MHz instead of 1,600 MHz (1.6 GHz) because it's idle. If you run the command many times, it will show different speeds, according to the logical cores' load. In the following picture, the same command shows the CPU running at 1,600 MHz.

Moblin v2.0 displaying the information about the Intel Atom processor with its two logical cores (hardware threads) running at 1,600 MHz.

Using your parallel programming skills, you can take advantage of the two hardware threads available and achieve a better performance when targeting Moblin v2.0 running on Intel Atom processors. Don't even think about creating serial code when you have 2 hardware threads available. Remember, the battery life is also going to thank your efforts to take advantage of Hyper-Threading on these platforms.

For More Information on Moblin

Go to Dr. Dobb's Moblin Zone


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Real World Parallelism Webinar Series

  • November 17, 2009
    Visual Effects for Animation - presented by DreamWorks Animation
    Speaker: Ron Henderson (Bio)

    Ron Henderson manages the FX Tools group at DreamWorks Animation, where he is responsible for developing physical simulation and procedural modeling tools. These systems have been used for key visual effects in recent films such as Kung Fu Panda and Monsters vs. Aliens (March 2009).

    Prior to joining DreamWorks in 2002 he was a senior scientist at Caltech with a joint appointment to the Applied Math and Aeronautics departments, where he worked on efficient techniques for the direct numerical simulation of fluid turbulence.

    Abstract:
    In this webinar, Ron Henderson will show examples of visual effects, from hair and feathers to smoke and fire, from a variety of DreamWorks Animation feature films. He will discuss in general terms the kinds of techniques used to achieve particular visual effects. Finally, Henderson will show a detailed breakdown of the dam-breaking scene from Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, demonstrating how different elements of key frame animation, simulation, and rendering are combined in a real production shot.

  • December 1, 2009
    A Quick and Easy Way to Parallelize a Legacy Codebase with Intel® Threading Building Blocks (TBBs)
    Speaker: Bernard Laberge, Avid, Senior Principal Engineer (Bio)

    Bernard Laberge is a senior principal engineer in the video editors division at Avid. During his seven years with the company he has been actively involved in the replacement of the legacy video processing engines used by Avid editors with a common hardware-abstracted, component-based video processing engine currently running on the CPU with SIMD optimized code, GPU, and dedicated hardware.

    Abstract:
    Learn how to overcome the limitations of a thread-based scheduler, including dealing with the absence of recursive parallelism support and the inefficient handling of unbalanced processing load. Bernard Laberge addresses how Avid resolved the expensive refactoring of their thread-based scheduler into a task-based solution by choosing Intel® Threading Building Blocks (TBBs). He explores how Avid was able to easily integrate the Intel TBBs into their video editor applications and more than 5 million lines of code.

  • December 15, 2009
    How to Use Intel® Parallel Studio to Streamline Code Development in a Multicore Environment
    Speaker: Matt Dunbar, Director for Performance Technology, SIMULIA (Bio)

    Matt Dunbar is the director for performance technology at SIMULIA. Since joining the company in 1993, he has worked on parallelization of the Abaqus suite of products, initially for shared memory architectures and more recently for distributed memory architectures. Dunbar has also been intimately involved in selecting both the hardware and software tools used in the development of the Abaqus product line.

    Abstract:
    Resolve elusive, costly multithreading errors quickly and efficiently with Intel® Parallel Studio. While many coding problems that lead to bugs in software applications are typically straightforward logic errors, errors in managing memory and in multithreading code can sometimes take weeks to months to diagnose and fix. Matt Dunbar explores how and why taking advantage of multicore processors through multithreaded code is critical for compute-intensive applications. While spotlighting his work on SIMULIA's Abaqus finite element solver, Dunbar addresses the need for multicore execution and shares his experiences using Intel Parallel Studio to streamline code development in a multicore environment.