[Gllug] Opteron vs Xeon

[t.clarke]

I am thinking about building a new server (to replace the existing ageing one)
and have been doing some research on various motherboards and processors.
The choice is confused somewhat by my requirements for slots, so I can use
existing PCI-X scsi controllers and drives etc.

A board that seems quite attractive (though not so readily available it seems)
is the Asus KFN4-D16  - which is a dual Opteron Socket F board.  At least with
the Opterons the choice of processor type is less bewildering than the host of
different Intel variants!

However, I note that the Opteron board has dedicated memory for each processor,
as opposed to, as far as I can see, Intel processor boards having main memory
serving both processors.   So, I am wondering how this affects performance.
As I understand it a lot of linux/unix processes will be using common 'library'
code which will presumably therefore reside in only one memory location.
If this is the case, how does CPU B access memory locations in CPU A's memory
'bank' and does this materially affect performance ?

Does anyone have any general views on Opterons vs Xeons ?

Tim

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