On 2009/06/16 16:37 (GMT+0200) Roger Oberholtzer composed:
...as the systems work so well, they really do not want to change them. But there has been a hardware failure in a subsystem (a VME-based PC), and the replacement hardware is only supported by a newer OS.
PII is still fully supported by current kernels, as long as proper compile options are set, which was the case in 10.3 and remains even in 11.2/Factory. Right now on the Fedora list there is discussion about dropping support for older systems, including the PII. The objections are strong. I don't think the arguments to drop outweigh those to keep. Since openSUSE is more conservative than Fedora, I suspect openSUSE's stock legacy kernels will continue to support PII for quite some time to come. The biggest obstacle to good performance on a P2B is the disk I/O. The onboard piix controller is Ultra DMA 2 aka UDMA33, capable of about 1/3 the throughput of the last made PATA disks. These controllers were the last PATA not to require 80 wire cables for reliable performance at max speed. I used to use SCSI instead of PATA on i440BX to get around that bottleneck, but took the last of my 100FSB systems out of service several months ago. -- "Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle." Proverbs 23:5 NIV Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org