The Foundation Model is an ARMv8 emulator made available by ARM Holdings, Inc. It is being used for initial bootstrapping of the Fedora AArch64 initiative.
System Requirements
- CPU: A 64-bit x86_64 system (the model does not run on 32-bit systems). The Model will frequently use 100% of a single core (typically, either 100% or 0%).
- Memory: 4GB plus the amount of memory assigned to the Model (e.g., if the Model is assigned 8 GB, the total memory allocated on the host is 12 GB; if the Model is assigned 4 GB RAM, the total memory allocated on the host is 8 GB)
Package Requirements
To install the Model on a stock Fedora system, some additional packages are required. These can be installed with this command:
sudo yum install xterm xorg-x11-fonts-{misc,100dpi,75dpi}* telnet bridge-utils
Running Multiple Models on One Host
On a typical multi-core x86_64 desktop system, the amount of available RAM is more of a limiting factor than the available CPU power. If you have sufficient RAM, it is reasonable to run up to (host_cores-1) models simultaneously.
Running the Model on a Laptop
Since the Foundation Model often runs cores at 100% CPU utilization, using the Model on a laptop may result in short battery life and a lot of heat.
Performance
As a rough yardstick, /proc/cpuinfo on the Foundation Model typically reports around 200 "bogomips". An x86_64 host will typically report 5500-6000 bogomips per core.