Re: alpha versus intel performance?

[Jay.Estabrook@digital.com]

>>> Danny Heap said:
> Our lab purchased a DEC alpha lx164 recently.  We had seen benchmarks
> (and heard comments) that suggested that it would outperform
> similarly-clocked P-II processors, especially in floating point
> operations.
> 
> In fact, our experience has been the reverse: our 350MHz P-IIs
> outperform our 533MHz alpha by at least a factor of 2.  I am including
> a short loop in C, with lots of trig functions (I assume that this
> should showcase floating point operations), plus the output from our
> DEC and Intel boxes.  I am also enclosing the output of `cat
> /proc/cpuinfo` in case that is relevant.
> 
> Any suggestions?  Are there some optimizations for the alpha that are
> (a) still being developed, or (b) that we can pass the compiler?

Please start by referring to:

	http://www.unix.digital.com/linux/cpml/index.html

There you'll find info about a high-performance math library that should
do wonders.

Good luck.

--Jay++

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Jay A Estabrook                            Alpha Motherboards - LINUX Project
Compaq Computer Corp. - SHR3-2/R28         (508) 841-3241 or (DTN) 237-3241
334 South Street, Shrewsbury, MA 01545     Jay.Estabrook@digital.com
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