DON:
If you have no intention of using something an ECM-50/ECM-XDP on this
machine, please pardon the interruption, as there is no need to read
further.
When I looked in to this issue about six months ago, Arium’s AMD
support on the ECM-50 was suspect. If I recall correctly, I believe
that they made no claims about 64-Bit support. This settled the AMD v.
Intel question. This may have changed; I do not know. I was probably
going to go with Intel anyway, as, despite being more costly, some of
what I was going to explore was implemented in the chipset, and, in
addition to Intel’s being more extensive, I found their documentation
better, and less subject to the vaporware phenomenon.
Having gone the Intel way, I can tell you one thing categorically - do
not buy a platform based on the LGA775 socket, unless it has implemented
some type ITP port. There is only company that makes an interposer for
this socket, we tried it, and it just did not work, which, after the
fact, the vendor mentioned. This, as far as I know, would narrow you
down to either a Development Kit or Customer Reference Board.
This is stage where I am presently, as I can’t seem to find a
Development Kit for the what I’m looking for - Dual Core Xeon 5000
series (other than the LV the version, for which there is a Development
Kit, but the LV is only 32-Bit)). I chose the Xeon because, among the
Intel 64 Options, it is, as of late, has the most well documented in
terms of debugging (BSDL, et. c.), and I’m going to look at some
features that are in the 5000X/P/V chipset.
I don’t know if any of this applies.
MM
>> xxxxx@hotmail.com 2006-07-11 18:45 >>>
Don,
I’ve got to step in here.
First of all, I love you like a Brother and know that you, your team
and
most of the folks on this list are brighter than I am. We all respect
your
opinions.
However, sometimes your strongest comments are colored by the specific
kind
of drivers that you write. And… Most folks don’t know that kind of
drivers
you write.
I disagree with your comment that “I find VmWare worthless”. IMHO there
are
some cases where VMWare and virtualization techniques are productive.
They
aren’t a substitute for real iron, but they can be useful if your
driver
doesn’t rely on specific hardware.
I have been a longtime VMWare user but only in limited situations:
1.) Debugging installers for hardware-independent drivers (such as NDIS
IM,
NDIS protocol).
2.) Limited driver debugging “in a pinch” - such as when I am away from
real
iron and must get some work done.
3.) Running legacy OS’s (Win95/98/ME/NT4) where the real iron has died
and
is in the basement waiting for the dumpster.
On my last trip (Grandaughter’s birthday) I had to make an emergency
fix to
a customer’s NDIS IM driver. The notebook I had with me included all
dev
tools plus VMWare copies of most Windows OS’s. I was able to make the
change
and make at least a limited test thanks to VMWare.
On the same trip I did a little Vista NDIS 6 LWF driver development.
Nothing
heavy, but Vista Beta 2 ran “adequately” under VMWare and could be
debugged.
I find VMWare highly worthwhile in some situations (and totally
useless in
other situations…).
Thomas F. Divine
“Don Burn” wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntdev…
>I find VmWare worthless, so that is not a concern. I am not
interested in
>the processor spec’s but peoples experience with their systems. For
>instance a poorly implemented ACPI bios can mess up things terribly
even
>though the components are high quality.
>
>
> –
> Don Burn (MVP, Windows DDK)
> Windows 2k/XP/2k3 Filesystem and Driver Consulting
> http://www.windrvr.com
> Remove StopSpam from the email to reply
>
>
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