Messages in this thread | | | Date | Mon, 22 Feb 1999 8:16:31 -0500 (EST) | From | KOEHLEKR@UCRWCU ... | Subject | AMD K6-2/400 and FIC VA-503+BM with Linux 2.0.36 |
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To: Linux Kernel Listserver AMD Tech Support FIC Tech Support R.E. Wolff (and anyone else you care to pass this on to whom you think might be interested)
From: Kenneth R. Koehler, PhD Associate Professor of Physics Raymond Walters College University of Cincinnati (koehlekr@ucrwcu.rwc.uc.edu or kenneth.koehler@uc.edu)
Re: AMD K6-2/400 and FIC VA-503+BM with Linux 2.0.36
I have a hardware problem which I need some help with.
I recently purchased 4 AMD K6-2/400 CPUs and 4 FIC VA-503+BM MBs with which I am building a Beowulf cluster for parallel algebraic computations in membrane theory. In testing the hardware prior to parallelizing my application, I encountered the following types of problems:
- random seg faults and parsing errors during kernel build - random silent deaths, illops and seg faults in wmclock (always same address when a core file is generated: illop = 80493c2, seg fault = 80493c8) - subtle variation in bogomips from one reboot to the next (always 799.54 or 801.18) - emacs under X seg faults after above problems appear (always same address - 401e4811) - hard system hangs (must reset)
The test bed with which I reproduce these problems is a combination of a HIGHLY cpu-bound C program (133Kb output in 12.5 hours at 400MHz, size > 48 Mb, RSS > 24 Mb during tests) coupled with a loop of kernel builds. Changing BIOS parameters (ie., wait states) had no effect.
I have run this test bed on all MBs and all CPUs, with both PC-100 memory (8 ns SMT chips) and non-PC-100 memory (Hyundai 10 ns chips). With the PC-100 memory, failures begin in minutes; with the non-PC-100 memory, in almost 7 hours I had many wmclock silent deaths, 2 wmclock seg faults and 2 kernel build seg faults. Clearly I have a timing problem. So I then jumpered a MB for 350 MHz, and as I compose this message, the test bed has run for over 9.5 hours with no failures.
The motherboards are PCB 1.2, serial numbers LA9004493, 4500, 9812 and 10868, all with 1 Mb of L2 cache. The CPUs are K6-2/400AFQ (Linux reports stepping M), serial numbers 16-007905, 6, 7 and 8. The BIOSs are Award 1.15JE33S. I am using RedHat 5.2 with kernel 2.0.36. All configurations have 64 Mb SDRAM (1 DIMM).
I would like to find some way to ascertain which component is responsible for the failures. I suspect the CPUs, but with all of my 29 years of computing experience, I cannot say that is more than a feeling. I have run memtest86 for hours with no failures.
Since my application often runs for weeks, and the computations are too complex ever to be done by hand, it is critical that I get as much speed as I can reliably get from these systems; but the reliability is paramount.
If any of you have any ideas or similar experiences, please e-mail me at the address above.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Ken
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