sysdata - find basic hardware system data

sysdata

After the atlc package is built, a small benchmark is run as part of the testing procedure. This benchmark tries to get some information about the hardware. The program sysdata displays the same hardware information that the benchmark will display, but runs in a fraction of a second, whereas the benchmark can take from 19 s (quad 1.4 GHz Itainium 2 machine) to 14,906 s (for a very old 33.3 MHz Cray Y-MP). There are no options or arguments to sysdata

The information gathered on hardware and software both developed by the same company (i.e. Solaris on Suns, AIX on IBM RS/6000, IRIX on SGI, ... etc etc) is generally more informative than the free systems (Linux, NetBSD, OpenBSD, FreeBSD) where it is usually impossible to get much hardware information.

Here are some examples of the use of sysdata on a number of systems. The large number of examples is for my own use as much as anything, so I can keep track of the development of sysdata and see easily where it needs extending. Examples are presented for:

1) Sun Ultra 80 running Solaris 9

2) HP C3000 running HP-UX 11

3) SGI Octane running IRIX 6.5.16

4) IBM RS/6000 running AIX 5.2

5) Dec Alpha 600a Personal Workstation running Tru64 5.1B

6) Cray Y-MP running UNICOS 9

7) Sun SPARCstation 20 running NetBSD 1.6

8) Sun SPARCstation 20 running OpenBSD 3.2

9) Sun SPARCstation 20 running Debian Linux

10) Sun SPARCstation 20 running Solaris 2.5

11) Generic PC with 350 MHz Pentium II running Redhat Linux 7.2

Here's the output from sysdata on these 11 systems.

e.g. 1 (Sun Ultra 80 running Solaris 9)

Hardware provider: Sun_Microsystems

Hardware platform: SUNW,Ultra-80

Machine: sun4u

Sysname: SunOS

Release: 5.9

Version: Generic_112233-06

Nodename: sparrow

#CPUs supported: 4

#CPUs online: 4

CPU type: sparcv9

FPU type: sparcv9

Speed: 450 MHz

RAM: 4096 Mb

L1 data cache unknown kB

L1 instruction cache: unknown kB

L2 cache: unknown kB

Here's an example on a HP 9000 series Visualize C3000 workstation, fitted with one 400 MHz PA-RISC 8500 CPU and 1.5 Gb of RAM

e.g. 2 (HP 9000 series Visualize C3000)

Hardware provider: HP

Hardware platform: unknown

Machine: 9000/785

Sysname: HP-UX

Release: B.11.00

Version: A

Nodename: robin

#CPUs supported: 1

#CPUs online: 1

CPU type: 532

FPU type: 1048577

Speed: 400.0 MHz

RAM: 1536 Mb

L1 data cache unknown kb

L1 instruction cache: unknown kb

L2 cache: unknown kb

Here's another example this time on an SGI Octane R10000 with 2 x 195 MHz processors. Note the CPU and FPU types reported at not the R10000 and R10010 that are reported by SGI's hinv. sysdata is not meant to replace other more sophisticated ways of obtaining system information (such as hinv on IRIX), but its data is useful to record for benchmarking purposes.

e.g. 3 (SGI Octane R1000)

Hardware provider: SGI

Hardware platform: unknown

Machine: IP30

Sysname: IRIX64

Release: 6.5

Version: 04101931

Nodename: owl

#CPUs supported: unknown

#CPUs online: 2

CPU type: 2343

FPU type: 2304

Speed: 195 MHz

RAM: 1024 Mb

L1 data cache 32 kB

L1 instruction cache: 32 kB

L2 cache: 1024 kB

Here's an example using an IBM RS/6000 F50 with 4 x 332 MHz CPUs and 1 GB of RAM.

e.g. 4 (IBM RS/6000 F50)

Hardware provider: IBM

Hardware platform: unknown

Machine: 000245984C00

Sysname: AIX

Release: 2

Version: 5

Nodename: starling

#CPUs supported: unknown

#CPUs online: 4

CPU type: unknown

FPU type: unknown

Speed: unknown MHz

RAM: 1024 Mb

L1 data cache unknown kB

L1 instruction cache: unknown kB

L2 cache: unknown kB

And here's an example from a single 599 MHz processor Dec Alpha 600a Personal Workstation running Tru64 5.1B

e.g. 5 (Dec Alpha 600a Personal Workstation)

Hardware provider: unknown

Hardware platform: Digital_Personal_WorkStation_600au

Machine: alpha

Sysname: OSF1

Release: V5.1

Version: 2650

Nodename: dobermann.localhost.ntlworld.co

#CPUs supported: 1

#CPUs online: 1

CPU type: EV5.6_(2)

FPU type: unknown

Speed: 599 MHz

RAM: 1024 Mb

L1 data cache unknown kb

L1 instruction cache: unknown kb

L2 cache: unknown kb

Here's some data collected on a very old Cray Y-MP, which was introduced in 1991.

e.g 6 (Cray Y-MP running UNICOS)

Hardware provider: Cray

Hardware platform: Y-MP

Machine: CRAY_Y-MP

Sysname: sn5176

Release: 9.0.2.2

Version: sin.0

Nodename: sn5176

#CPUs supported: unknown

#CPUs online: 4

CPU type: unknown

FPU type: unknown

Speed: 33.3 MHz

RAM: unknown Mb

L1 data cache unknown kb

L1 instruction cache: unknown kb

L2 cache: unknown kb

That is all the examples of commercial hardware running the operating systems made by the manufacturers of the hardware. The following are free UNIX versions. In these cases the data gathered is never as complete. In particular the amoumt of memory reported if often less than the real amount due to memory taken by the operating system (kernel etc). The number of processors the system can support is never available.

Here's the first such non-commercial UNIX from a single processor Sun SPARCstation 20 running NetBSD 1.6.

e.g. 7 (Sun SPARCstation 20 running NetBSD 1.6)

Hardware provider: unknown

Hardware platform: unknown

Machine: sparc

Sysname: NetBSD

Release: 1.6

Version: NetBSD_1.6_(GENERIC)_#0:_Mon_Sep__9_08:2sparc

Nodename: blackbird

#CPUs supported: unknown

#CPUs online: 1

CPU type: rg:/autobuild/sparc/OBJ/autobuild/src/sys/arch/sparc/compile/GENERIC

FPU type: unknown

Speed: unknown MHz

RAM: 255 Mb

L1 data cache unknown kb

L1 instruction cache: unknown kb

L2 cache: unknown kb

Here's data from a Sun SPARCstation 20 running OpenBSD 3.2. The machine has 320 Mb of RAM, not 318 Mb as indicated. The number of processors the system supports is reported as unknown, but should the system have been running Solaris 9, as in the example 1 (sparrow), then this information would have been determined, but it is not available under OpenBSD - or Solaris 2.5 for that matter.

e.g. 8 (Sun SPARCstation 20 running OpenBSD 3.2)

Hardware provider: unknown

Hardware platform: unknown

Machine: sparc

Sysname: OpenBSD

Release: 3.2

Version: GENERIC#36

Nodename: crow.crow.localdomain

#CPUs supported: unknown

#CPUs online: 1

CPU type: unknown

FPU type: unknown

Speed: unknown MHz

RAM: 319 Mb

L1 data cache unknown kb

L1 instruction cache: unknown kb

L2 cache: unknown kb

The next machine is a Sun SPARCstation 20 running Debian Linux. The version of Debian is unknown, but clearly sysdata is unable to determine this.

e.g. 9 (Sun SPARCstation 20 running Debian Linux)

Hardware provider: unknown

Hardware platform: unknown

Machine: sparc

Sysname: Linux

Release: 2.2.20

Version: #1_Fri_Nov_16_15:48:02_EST_2001

Nodename: dove

#CPUs supported: unknown

#CPUs online: 1

CPU type: unknown

FPU type: unknown

Speed: unknown MHz

RAM: 281 Mb

L1 data cache unknown kb

L1 instruction cache: unknown kb

L2 cache: unknown kb

Here's data from a Sun SPARCstation 20 running Solaris 2.5 (SunOS 5.5). The machine probably does have 352 Mb of RAM as reported. The number of processors the system supports is reported as unknown, but should the system have been running Solaris 9, as in the example 1 (sparrow), then this information would have been determined, but it is not available under Solaris 2.5.

e.g. 10 (Sun SPARCstation 20 Solaris 2.5)

Hardware provider: Sun_Microsystems

Hardware platform: SUNW,SPARCstation-20

Machine: sun4m

Sysname: SunOS

Release: 5.5

Version: Generic

Nodename: bluetit

#CPUs supported: unknown

#CPUs online: 2

CPU type: sparc

FPU type: sparc

Speed: 125 MHz

RAM: 352 Mb

L1 data cache unknown kb

L1 instruction cache: unknown kb

L2 cache: unknown kb

Here's a standard PC, fitted with one processor

e.g. 11 (350 MHz Pentium II PC running Redhat Linux)

Hardware provider: unknown

Hardware platform: unknown

Machine: i686

Sysname: Linux

Release: 2.4.18-5

Version: #1_Mon_Jun_10_15:31:48_EDT_2002

Nodename: tiger

#CPUs supported: unknown

#CPUs online: 1

CPU type: unknown

FPU type: unknown

Speed: unknown MHz

RAM: 123 Mb

L1 data cache unknown kb

L1 instruction cache: unknown kb

L2 cache: unknown kb

sysdata does not read/write any files.

atlc(1)

create_bmp_for_circ_in_circ(1)

create_bmp_for_circ_in_rect(1)

create_bmp_for_microstrip_coupler(1)

create_bmp_for_rect_cen_in_rect(1)

create_bmp_for_rect_cen_in_rect_coupler(1)

create_bmp_for_rect_in_circ(1)

create_bmp_for_rect_in_rect(1)

create_bmp_for_stripline_coupler(1)

create_bmp_for_symmetrical_stripline(1)

design_coupler(1)

find_optimal_dimensions_for_microstrip_coupler(1)

hinv - SGI's IRIX only.

readbin(1)

http://atlc.sourceforge.net - Home page

http://sourceforge.net/projects/atlc - Download area

atlc-X.Y.Z/docs/html-docs/index.html - HTML docs

atlc-X.Y.Z/docs/qex-december-1996/atlc.pdf - theory paper

atlc-X.Y.Z/examples - examples