Mathematica problems on Solaris
in [Solaris]
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From: dave (from the uk) on 23 Mar 2006 08:53 There were several messages here recently about excessive CPU usage of Matematica on Solaris (SPARC). I thought some my like to know I have raised this with Wolfram Research who are investiating it. I've not received confirmation that they have verified it. I'd hope they contact Sun about this, as some recent Solaris changes (eithe Solaris 10 and/or patches) have caused this to appear, although that does not mean it is a Solaris bug - it might well be a Mathematica bug. I hope it is a Solaris bug, as I suspect it will get fixed quicker - I have no idea when a new release of Mathematica is due out. Still, even ignoring this bug, Mathematica performance on SPARC is *very* poor, making it a poor platform. In contrast Mathematica performance on a Sun Ultra 40 running Solaris is *excellent* - as is documented on some Sun web pages, as at on point it helded a Mathematica benchmark record. If others have support contracts on this they might like to raise it too. Dave (from the UK) PS I'm sending from my PDA via Google groups, so don't reply to this emai .. I'm sure you can work out my address if you want to.
From: Wes W on 23 Mar 2006 09:48 dave (from the uk) wrote: > There were several messages here recently about excessive CPU usage of > Matematica on Solaris (SPARC). > > I thought some my like to know I have raised this with Wolfram Research > who are investiating it. I've not received confirmation that they have > verified it. I'd hope they contact Sun about > this, as some recent Solaris changes (eithe Solaris 10 and/or patches) > have caused this to appear, although that does not mean it is a Solaris > bug - it might well be a Mathematica bug. > > I hope it is a Solaris bug, as I suspect it will get fixed quicker - I > have no idea when a new release of Mathematica is due out. Still, even > ignoring this bug, Mathematica performance on SPARC is *very* poor, > making it a poor platform. In contrast Mathematica performance on a Sun > Ultra 40 running Solaris is *excellent* - as is documented on some Sun > web pages, as at on point it helded a Mathematica benchmark record. > > If others have support contracts on this they might like to raise it > too. > > Dave (from the UK) > Thanks for the update. Keep up posted if you hear of the certified cause or solution.
From: Casper H.S. Dik on 25 Mar 2006 08:09 "dave (from the uk)" <sorry_no_known_address(a)hotmail.com> writes: >I thought some my like to know I have raised this with Wolfram Research >who are investiating it. I've not received confirmation that they have >verified it. I'd hope they contact Sun about >this, as some recent Solaris changes (eithe Solaris 10 and/or patches) >have caused this to appear, although that does not mean it is a Solaris >bug - it might well be a Mathematica bug. You don't have this problem on older versions of S10? Have you tried this with Solaris 10 (unpatched) vs Solaris 10 (patched). Casper -- Expressed in this posting are my opinions. They are in no way related to opinions held by my employer, Sun Microsystems. Statements on Sun products included here are not gospel and may be fiction rather than truth.
From: Dave (from the UK) on 25 Mar 2006 12:41 Casper H.S. Dik wrote: > "dave (from the uk)" <sorry_no_known_address(a)hotmail.com> writes: > > >>I thought some my like to know I have raised this with Wolfram Research >>who are investiating it. I've not received confirmation that they have >>verified it. I'd hope they contact Sun about >>this, as some recent Solaris changes (eithe Solaris 10 and/or patches) >>have caused this to appear, although that does not mean it is a Solaris >>bug - it might well be a Mathematica bug. > > > You don't have this problem on older versions of S10? > > Have you tried this with Solaris 10 (unpatched) vs Solaris 10 (patched). > > Casper Casper, I have not tried this with an unpatched Solaris 10 system, and I don't know anyone that has. All cases I know of are on patched Solaris 10 (3/05 or 1/06) SPARC systems. I had resisted the temptation to set up a system for testing this, but your post has inspired me (sad person I am!!), so I will do a fresh install and test it without any patches. But I noticed this bug before 19th Jan 06. Given I have no Sun contract, this probably means there were no patches on my system when I first found the problem. Or would there have been publically available patches for Solaris 10 update 1 on the 19th Jan 2006?? -- Dave K MCSE. MCSE = Minefield Consultant and Solitaire Expert. Please note my email address changes periodically to avoid spam. It is always of the form: month-year(a)domain. Hitting reply will work for a couple of months only. Later set it manually.
From: Dave (from the UK) on 26 Mar 2006 00:23
Casper H.S. Dik wrote: > "dave (from the uk)" <sorry_no_known_address(a)hotmail.com> writes: > > >>I thought some my like to know I have raised this with Wolfram Research >>who are investiating it. I've not received confirmation that they have >>verified it. I'd hope they contact Sun about >>this, as some recent Solaris changes (eithe Solaris 10 and/or patches) >>have caused this to appear, although that does not mean it is a Solaris >>bug - it might well be a Mathematica bug. > > > You don't have this problem on older versions of S10? > > Have you tried this with Solaris 10 (unpatched) vs Solaris 10 (patched). > > Casper Casper, I've just done a few more tests. The Ultra 60 referred to is the same one in each case (360 MHz, 512 MB). 1) Ultra 60, fresh install of Solaris 9 (first release, whenever that was). No problems - Mathematica 5.2 works fine. 2) Ultra 60, fresh install of Solaris 10 3/05, with no patches. Problem present. 3) Ultra 60, fresh install of Solaris 10 1/06, with no patches. Problem present. 4) Unknown machine. I think it might be a Netra T1, but I don't know for sure. (I only have remote access). uname -a shows. SunOS wickedwitch 5.10 Generic_118822-19 sun4u sparc SUNW,UltraAX-i2 This Netra T1 (or whatever) has Solaris 10, patched a month or two ago. Problem present. As has been pointed out once before by someone else http://groups.google.co.uk/group/comp.unix.solaris/tree/browse_frm/thread/3f751c580fffde23/a23fd5b7de81c11e?rnum=11&hl=en&_done=%2Fgroup%2Fcomp.unix.solaris%2Fbrowse_frm%2Fthread%2F3f751c580fffde23%2F35233d67d579039f%3Flnk%3Draot%26hl%3Den%26#doc_ecebd6ae8db1c775 a Blade 1000, despite having Solaris 10, had *no* such bug. Are modern machines exempt?? I don't personally have access to a more modern machine with Solaris 10 on it. The machines either have Solaris 10 and are pretty old, or are new and have Solaris 9. So it seems you need all these 3 have a problem. 1) Mathematica 5.1 or 5.2. Both 4.0 and 4.2 are unaffected. I can't say for Mathematica 5, as I don't have it installed. 2) Solaris 10 (either release, with or without patches) 3) UltraSPARC II or IIe CPU. Given there is only one Solaris 10 machine that does not suffer the problem, it may be unwise to say only UltraSPARC II and IIe are affected. Any thoughts on how one might be able to get a workaround? Using truss on the CPU bound process (MathKernel), I found this a few weeks ago. http://groups.google.co.uk/group/comp.unix.solaris/browse_frm/thread/3f751c580fffde23/35233d67d579039f?lnk=raot&hl=en#35233d67d579039f -- Dave K MCSE. MCSE = Minefield Consultant and Solitaire Expert. Please note my email address changes periodically to avoid spam. It is always of the form: month-year(a)domain. Hitting reply will work for a couple of months only. Later set it manually. |