Class 7 Sim

Merlin, I live on one of those "Hidden sims". A sim you can only see or get to if you are a resident there, or are in a specific access group. I can assure you, they are the same servers that any other Private Island sim uses: Class 4 if it's an old sim, or Class 5 if it's newer or if it has been upgraded. The one I am on is running on a new Class 5 server. Any private sim owner, even someone with an ancient Class 3 server, can make their sim 'Hidden'. It's merely a checkbox option in the Estate controls, available to the sim owner and Estate Managers for that sim.

I design and build sims for clients professionally, and I am a registered SL Developer. I assure you, if it was possible to get a "Class 6" or "Class 7" sim, I'd be one of the first people who would know about how to do it. I am also, in the Real World, a professional computer scientist, who works with large arrays of high-powered corporate grade servers. I know what they cost and what is out there. And I am telling you clearly that Class 6 and Class 7 sims for Second Life do not yet exist, and are unlikely to exist for at least a year or two.

Are there more powerful computer servers out there than what Linden Lab uses today as a Class 5 Server? Yes, certainly. But not at a price point that makes it viable to use them for Second Life. No one will buy a sim that costs millions of dollars to set up, and tens of thousands of dollars per year to maintain.

If someone informed you that Class 6 or Class 7 sims exist, they were either intentionally lying, or were making an unfounded speculation, or someone else had lied to them.

They do not exist.

Class 6 MAY come out in the next year or so. Unlikely that you'll see it before the last part of 2008. There has been no official announcement for their release plans, not even to developers.

Class 7? Probably not until 2009 or 2010. It will take that long for server hardware price performance per dollar value to get low enough for the more powerful servers to be cost effective as SL servers.

Is it possible that the Lindens have a few super souped up servers that they use for testing/development/researc/futures work? I hope so. they need to know if it is worth marketing faster servers.

I believe Ceera that it would know if there were any available for "customers". That doesn't mean that there are not any at all.

hell, some grid monkey might have some over-clocked freon cooled whiz bang hot rod under his desk right now, running his own private class 12 sim.

lee

Should THAT be te server this forum is runing on ?

How can you tell if it's class 3,4 or 5 server if you're not the owner of the SIM?

As a sim owner, I can't even tell what class I have, other than to trust what LL tells me. Apparently it used to be that the host number was an indication of the class. But in recent history that's been proven to no longer be the case. So, in reality, only a Linden could know for 100% sure what class a particular sim is.

I want a class 69 sim

Darien, it means you may have a class 3 server but pay for class 5 server ? I hear sometimes you think you pay for your own server and it turns out it's actually a shared one. Great! Just like the other day when I cashed out $ and they did not give me any info about the conversion rate or the applied fees .

Yep, sims are their own cpu, but may be located on the same server as other sims. See for instance

http://neighbours.maxcase.info/

I didn't mean to imply that. If you bought a Class 5, it should always be a Class 5. However If you are buying a server from somone in world, there's no way to tell what you are getting without verification from Linden Labs.

And yes, all Class 5 sims reside 4 to a server (quad core, so each sim has it's own processor). Class 4 Sims are two to a server (Dual core).

Hello.

After a quick search...I couldn't find a defined answer besides 'calling up Lindens and asking'...is there a way to find out what type of server class your sim is on? Mainland or private? Also, tried Sim neighbours website...to see what other sims are on the same server...and it didn't have this information. Is there a way to find this out too? Are Private Islands on their own server? Thanks in advance!

/me quotes herself in a different thread.



The class 5 server hardware is just a year old now - actually announced a year ago this week.. http://blog.secondlife.com/2006/10/16/looking-forward-to-class-5/

Class 6 servers haven't been announced yet. I sorta doubt they're going to skip 6 and go straight to 7.


For mainland, you can sorta imply the answer. Anything old north continent mainland and the eastern 1/2 - 2/3rd of the southern one is almost certainly class 4. The two new continents are all class 5.

For islands, the concierge may be able to tell you.

Nope - the sim software expects to have one CPU core to itself so, mainland or island, you can fit four sims on a physical (class 4&5) server.

There could be class 6 & on the grid being tested I guess, maybe they wouldn't tell us, maybe the difference is no more noticable than between a class 4&5. Maybe Class 6 is a Class 5 with 1 CPU per sim or something?
Is Class 5 a generic industry rating for a server or a LL label? I I go to a big computer co and try to order a class 7 server, would they know what it was?

I thought I read something many months ago about higher end "corporate" servers being available for multiple tens of thousands of dollars to set up and fees in the thousands per month.

I"m not so sure about the estimate of class 6 being this time next year.. depends on pricing mostly, quad cores are dirt cheap, next month the new intel and AMD lines come out, and Intel has already speculated in the processor roadmap by this time next year we will be at 16 core (8 real, 8 Hyper threaded) with built in memory controllers to aleviate the bottle neck on the motherboard. Depending on just how good the new quad cores are Feb the prices should be at reasonable levels to be used as class 6 along with DDR3... and class 7 could be the 16 core, DDR3, using sata3 hard drives....

/me isn't so sure..

LL has thousands and thosands of servers. They're not going to be quick to jump to some new tech until it's proven solid - they have enough trouble as it is. That and the land market has sorta stalled a bit so I'm not sure there's a huge need to add more hardware yet.

Unless they're going to drastically change the sim software, I think they're going to wait for the CSI stuff from Intel to settle in. With the FSB going away to a more NUMA-like setup, they'll get a huge memory speed boost with the current sim design. Since all processors still have to go through a single IO hub even with CSI, I don't think we'll see more than 8 sims on a server, though - dual quad-core. That's if they don't change the sim software all around between now and class 6, though.

But I'm just guessing. Even with all the stuff they're talking about - and they talk a _lot_ if you listen - I'm sure there's a lot they're not talking about..

/me is content to wait and see.

Didn't they promise Havoc 2 for ages and then go straight to Havoc 4?