Com-Central.net

Mar. 23, 2006

If you wanted to sum up what's new in this latest release of Linux, you could say that it's a Linux for high-end enterprise users. However, this kernel is also the first one to support Toshiba, Sony, and IBM's CELL processor, which is best known as the chip that will power Sony's forthcoming PlayStation 3 game console.

Of course, CELL (Cell Broadband Engine Architecture), a 64-bit PowerPC-derived, multicore chip is meant for more than just games. It's designed from the silicon up to be scalable for use in everything from game consoles to workstations and servers. So, even the CELL support actually fits into the 2.6.16's themes of high-end hardware support.

More easily recognized as an enterprise play is this kernel's support for the second version of Oracle's OCFS2 (Oracle Cluster File System for Linux). With this cluster support, users can get speedy disk support over SANs (Storage Area Networks), or, thanks to its TCP-based messaging system, across Fast or Gigabit Ethernets and cluster nodes or NAS (Network Attached Storage).

The new Linux kernel also has support for Mac OS X's newest file system: HFSX. This is the latest update to Apple's HFS Plus (Hierarchical File System Plus) file system. HFS Plus and its descendents have been the Mac's default file system since Mac OS 8.1. HFSX appeared on Macs beginning with Mac OS X 10.3, Panther.

Other file systems though, which had been talked about making it into Linux, are still optional outsiders. These include Red Hat's GFS (Global File System), another clustering system, and the high-performance, journaling Reiser4 file system.