“Learn how IBM DB2 9 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows exploits multiple page sizes. With the introduction of the POWER5+ processor architecture, the IBM AIX 5L operating system added support for a new 64-kilobyte page with properties that are similar to the current default 4-kilobyte pages. In addition, AIX 5L Version 5.3 TL04 also introduced a new 16-gigabyte huge-page feature for this hardware architecture. DB2 9 automatically exploits the 64-kilobyte pages to deliver high performance for database applications on this platform. In addition, DB2 also supports the enablement of 16-gigabyte huge pages.”
To clarify this (since it is not at all clear from the teaser or the article), multiple page sizes are only supported on AIX, not on Linux or Windows. Further, AIX 5.1+ is required for 64K pages and AIX 5.3 TL4 is required for 16GB pages. Many AIX users still run AIX 4.3 because the more recent releases have been… a tad buggy.
And in case you don’t want to read the article, the executive summary is that large pages mean small page tables, which translates into less overhead for mapping virtual memory to physical memory. The downside is that paging to and from the swap device is slower, which is why the extremely large 16GB pages are actually pinned into system memory (and obviously require much more than 16GB of memory, so we’re talking big iron here).
Finally, it pleases me tremendously to see the “TL4” moniker attached to the most recent feature update of AIX 5.3. Last year, as an intern at IBM, I was tasked to simplify the terminology for a new release management system that distinguishes between feature updates and service/fix updates, and TL (Technology Level) is the term I came up with for the former (the previous term was “Concluding Service Pack,” or CSP). I first suggested “Technology Pack,” but that was rejected because TP reminds people of toilet paper.
So it was you who came up with the “TL” term, although I still don’t know who you really are
I always enjoy reading your posts on osnews.
I believe _most_ AIX users have moved up to 5.x by now, except those still running on MicroChannel-based systems. 4.3.3 is out of service for quite some time.
multiple page sizes are only supported on AIX, not on Linux or Windows.
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Oh yes – 256M pages here, perhaps you forgot CONFIG_HUGETLB_PAGE ?
Good stuff but gave me a bit of a start at first glance, funny how the word, “exploit”, in a headline has taken on, well for me anyway since it’s presence has almost always been followed by a load of unscheduled work, developed a negative connotation, seems almost like yelling, “fire”, ain a theater to use it and not be a story about something network security related.
Does anyone know the business intelligence capabilities of the “free” DB2 v9 product?
Heh, the other day I found this “business intelligence” term used somewhere and dismissed it, and now I see it used here, too. I just had to look it up on Wikipedia.
Basically, it refers to a process or technology that facilitates the collection and querying of data regarding the user’s business and that of its competitors. It could be used, for example, to quickly generate a list of features in your product that are not available in your competitors’ products.
Naturally, an RDBMS serves as a natural starting point. The question is, what kind of additional features could be present to facilate its use as a business intelligence tool without too narrowly defining what kinds of information companies would like to track?
For a technical person’s point of view, this business intelligence idea seems like a huge waste. Every company needs something like a “chief architect” to direct the future of a product, and this person must rely on at least one “market strategist” that knows the product’s market space inside and out. There can be no substitute for smart people who know what they are doing, and I doubt that a business intelligence tool, at least as I understand it, is likely to make their jobs any easier. If anything, these people will waste a lot of their time structuring and customizing this system, just to get it to understand all of relationships and particularities of the market that they already intuitively understand.
So, regardless of DB2 v9’s prowess at business intelligence, I contend that this one more way that corporate (America) has come up with, at significant expense, to make even highly-knowledgeable executives an expendable and replacable commodity.
I wrote a PC operating system which doesn’t use virtual memory. It’s for hobbiest programmers. I haven’t benchmarked it. The compiler’s mediocre. There are plenty of things you cannot do, but a few advantages.
http://www.losethos.com