I was reading about the latest Linux release 4.12. I was surprised at how much has been added to the core capabilities of the operating system. They estimate over 1 million lines of code. What was even more interesting was how some of that code came to be. Linux is now supporting new high performance hardware increasing the throughput and computing capacity far beyond anything I can personally imagine.
My goal here is not to tout Linux as an operating system per se. What I am taking away from this release is the fact that Linux is very much alive and kicking. This emphasizes the push from companies like Microsoft to make their systems capable of being hosted by the Linux operating system. In fact, Microsoft really has any OS revenue cost covered simply by hosting Linux in the Azure environment. That being said, if you need to concentrate as much of your power as possible to your processes, with as little graphical interface support, this is a continuing possibility, with new features coming online regularly.
Another thing I took away from this Linux release was the fact that they are implementing device drivers for cutting edge GPU chips. These chips are being built, and have APIs allowing them to be used for more than Graphics. They have architectures targeted for solving massive calculations as we have seen becoming more prominent with things such as Machine Learning, etc. With an unbelievable bus speed and calculation throughput, these new chips could radically change the power of a single intel based computer.
Are you looking for a screaming machine? Perhaps it’s time to create a lab with some of the new high performance peripherals, and take on a console based operating system, to see what kind of race machine you can handle. This would be like owning a Farari back in the old days. You couldn’t just drive it. You really had to know about how it worked.
Are you coding with GPUs yet? Drop us a note with your experience in our comments or by email to btaylor@sswug.org.
Cheers,
Ben