Linus Torvalds Upgrades to AMD Threadripper After 15 Years with Intel

[btarunr]

Linux and Git creator Linus Torvalds revealed that he upgraded to an AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X processor powered machine after 15 years of upgrading among Intel processors. This is likely his main machine from which he does pioneering work on the future of Linux and his other creations. His May 24 dated "State of the Kernel" blog post reveals that his hardware upgrade was the most exciting piece of news to share among the community.

"In fact, the biggest excitement this week for me was just that I, upgraded my main machine, and for the first time in about 15 years, my desktop isn't Intel-based. No, I didn't switch to ARM yet, but I'm now rocking an AMD Threadripper 3970x. My 'allmodconfig' test builds are now three times faster than they used to be, which doesn't matter so much right now during the calming down period, but I will most definitely notice the upgrade during the next merge window," he stated. What makes this story big is the fact that the "Zen 2" microarchitecture, and a processor with a similar multi-core architecture to AMD's EPYC enterprise processors, is now being used by the creator of the most popular enterprise operating system.



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[cucker tarlson]

with his kind of pc budget I wonder what took him so long.
I'd have jumped on the TR3000 as soon as it launched.

 

[londiste]

What was he using before?

 

[cucker tarlson]

a dual socket fake x79 from china that ended up costing more than a normal high core count cpu ?

 

[thesmokingman]

It's ironic, he was the last hold out.

 

[Bruno Vieira]

with his kind of pc budget I wonder what took him so long.
I'd have jumped on the TR3000 as soon as it launched.

He cant afford to be an early adopter, many people he knows are using and telling wonders for months now, so he felt 'safe' to upgrade and just keep working. And this is not an AMD thing, when skylake was out (6700k), it had some bugs in windows and linux, it took 1 or 2 months to be really stable to use daily. intel doesn't have new uArch problems in 4 years because there is no new uArch. They may have a thousand validation tests but there is always very edge niche cases to take care after release.

 

[Regeneration]

I'm using Intel processors in my primary workstation since the launch of Core 2 Quad (Q6600) in 2007.

My last AMD desktop CPU was something from socket 939 (Venice or Winchester). Before that, Barton 2800 + Abit NF7.

Had some AMD CPUs in my laptops and HTPCs over the years. But I mostly use my Intel workstation(s).

Next processor is going to be AMD again. Don't like companies that restrict overclocking to select SKUs and chipsets.

 

[Thefumigator]

I'm using Intel processors in my primary workstation since the launch of Core 2 Quad (Q6600) in 2007.

My last AMD desktop CPU was something from socket 939 (Venice or Winchester). Before that, Barton 2800 + Abit NF7.

Had some AMD CPUs in my laptops and HTPCs over the years. But I mostly use my Intel workstation(s).

Next processor is going to be AMD again. Don't like companies that restrict overclocking to select SKUs and chipsets.

I can recommend the 3950X is you can afford it. I upgraded to a 3950X Its the first upgrade in my life where I keep saying "this is too much, its like a double upgrade..."
My 5500XT on the other hand, is... kinda disappointing. I didn't do my homework, I though that all the tensor flow and tensor cores were already supported on AMD GPU.
Well, ML is supported on OpenCL but not even close to what nvidia cores can handle. And I was looking at the Nvidia cards, you know, for a replacement, and I started to like the 1650 super and such, but it happens they don't have tensor cores either. I mean, c'mon nvidia....

 

[HTC]

@btarunr : Isn't this the machine Wendel from Level1Techs got for him a while back?

 

[btarunr]

@btarunr : Isn't this the machine Wendel from Level1Techs got for him a while back?

Wendell's build went to Greg Kroah-Hartman. I guess that was a major influence on Linus getting himself a Threadripper

 

[Aquinus]

Wendell's build went to Greg Kroah-Hartman. I guess that was a major influence on Linus getting himself a Threadripper.

...and the part where kernel compile times are 3 times faster which is huge during merge windows.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Linux and Git creator Linus Torvalds revealed that he upgraded to an AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X processor powered machine after 15 years of upgrading among Intel processors.

That took long enough!

 

[Vya Domus]

I started to like the 1650 super and such, but it happens they don't have tensor cores either. I mean, c'mon nvidia....

It's a good thing that they don't include dedicated hardware for something that is of no use for the general consumer. Don't get me wrong I would also like that hardware in my GPUs but me and you account for less than 0.01% of the consumers that buy these things.

 

[R-T-B]

I mean, it's the best tool for the job, no doubt about it.

I understand him skipping 1st gen Ryzen (they really had unfixable Linux issues), but now there is no excuse.

I like my 8-core Intel but if I could afford a threadripper, I'd be all over that. Believe it or not, I'm only on this because someone else got out and I got it on a deal. It's good for the money I spent, but far better exists and I know it.

 

[ARF]

Oh, he got a 32C/64T Ryzen Threadripper 3970X, why didn't he go even further with the mightier 64C/128T Ryzen Threadripper 3990X ?

 

[cucker tarlson]

we don't know

 

[laszlo]

"You too, Brutus!?"

 

[ARF]

What was he using before?

Some type of eight-core most likely.

That took long enough!

15 years since 2005. 2005 was still the time when AMD dominated with Athlon 64.
Did he use a Pentium back in 2005 ?

 

[hurakura]

Sponsored by AMD

 

[Manoa]

Sponsored by AMD

+1 and also now amerika can hack him thru the PSP and put backdoor into kerenal

 

[R-T-B]

+1 and also now amerika can hack him thru the PSP and put backdoor into kerenal

Meh. It'd still show up in the source. The PSP is slightly more mysterious than the Intel ME, but not by much.

 

[Caring1]

Meh. It'd still show up in the source. The PSP is slightly more mysterious than the Intel ME, but not by much.

PlayStation Portable?

 

[Aquinus]

PlayStation Portable?

Platform Security Processor.

 

[Caring1]

Platform Security Processor.

Knew it had to be something other than what PSP originally meant.

 

[Aquinus]

Knew it had to be something other than what PSP originally meant.

How dare AMD reuse an acronym that had already been used before! UNFORGIVABLE!