[ltp] Double your RAM?

[Malcolm Dean]

Here's a portion of today's Hochmuth on Linux:

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: PHIL HOCHMUTH 
on LINUX
07/16/01 - Today's focus: Double your Linux hardware memory

By Phil Hochmuth 

How do you boost your Linux server memory by 100% without 
opening the box's chassis? Instead of fiddling with swap page 
file sizes, you could try a new software module called MXT 
(Memory eXpansion Technology) for Linux. 

MXT is a software patch that can be applied to the Linux 
kernel in order to double the amount of RAM in a Linux PC 
or server. This is done through memory compression technology, 
which is installed when the patch is applied to the kernel 
and an update to the BIOS of the Linux machine. 

Similar to how data compression allows files to take up less 
space on a hard disk (as with ".tar" and ".gz" files), memory 
compression code instructs the Linux machine's memory 
controllers to take up less space as data is processed 
through physical RAM. 

The software is an open source project hosted by IBM's open 
source development group. According to its developers, MXT 
works best with systems that already have large amounts of 
memory, starting at the 128M bytes level of physical RAM. 
Since smaller memory chips are less expensive than high-density 
ones, more cost savings could be seen by applying MXT to a 
512M byte system, resulting in 1G bytes of memory.

MXT kernel patches are available for Linux kernel version 2.2.14 
and the new 2.4 versions. Patches are also available for specific 
Linux distributions such as Red Hat Linux 6.2 and Caldera eServer 
2.3. A BIOS update for MXT can be obtained by contacting 
mxt@us.ibm.com 


_______________________________________________________________
To contact Phil Hochmuth: 

Phil Hochmuth is a staff writer for Network World, and 
a former systems integrator. You can reach him at 
mailto:phochmut@nww.com.
_______________________________________________________________
RELATED EDITORIAL LINKS

MXT Web site
http://oss.software.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/mxt/

Download the software
http://oss.software.ibm.com/developerworks/projects/mxt

A report from the field
Network World, 07/16/01
http://www.nwfusion.com/archive/2001/122709_07-16-2001.html

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