Support for Oracle Corp. database clustering and IBM Corp.'s Cell processor are among the new enhancements in the latest version
of the Linux kernel.
Linux kernel developer Linus Torvalds announced the release of version 2.6.16 Monday in the kernel mailing list.
The update includes a clustering file system from Oracle that is aimed to ease the management of Oracle RAC (Real Application
Cluster) installations.
Among the other new additions to the kernel is support for IBM Corp.'s Cell processor. The Cell processor, which IBM has developed
along with Sony Corp. and Toshiba Corp., is used in Sony's PlayStation game console. IBM last month said it had also developed
a blade server system based on the Cell processor that it is positioning for use in high-performance computing. The company
believes it will have the greatest impact for applications that involve streaming data or image manipulation in such industries
as medical imaging and life sciences
On tap for a future update of the Linux kernel is support for Sun Microsystems Inc.'s UltraSparc T1 chip, formerly code-named
"Niagara," according to the KernelNewbies Web site. The UltraSparc chip has eight cores, and each core can run up to four different threads, or processes. Sun Tuesday said
it had released the source code for Niagara to the open-source community in an effort to spur development.
On the security side, the latest Linux kernel update also includes several bug fixes, Torvalds said.
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