Linux Kernel 2.6 For Machines Great and Small

Now feature-locked, the Linux kernel 2.6, which went to beta testing on July 14, includes patches that cater to the mass market and the massively scalable. Server-app developers can look forward to 64-way processing, enormous block-size support and a hyperthreading-aware scheduler. Also incorporated are kernel pre-emption and uClinux patches, the latter giving embedded developers a mainstream method of running Linux on low-cost processors that lack a memory management unit.

Release could be weeks away, according to Andrew Morton, Linux kernel 2.6 maintainer working under contract for the OSDL along with Linux creator Linus Torvalds. Morton believes that the scalability improvements will be of most interest to enterprise developers.

“Everybody is crying out for a wider address space. The general consensus was that Linux gets into diminishing returns above four-way [processing]. In 2.6, we’re scaling well at 16-way, and I’d say 32-way is quite practical,” said Morton.