Compiling

We put a particular emphasis on compiling because it stresses the entire system (hard drive, processor and memory) but also because any *nix user knows, compiling is no fun on a slow machine.

GNU Make 3.79.1 / GCC 3.4.2

While GCC isn't multithreaded, we can run multiple jobs using the -j command in make. Below, you can see the significant improvement on performance going from 1 to 3 to 5 jobs. We used the commands as below to compile the Linux 2.6.4 kernel from kernel.org. The kernel is set for a cross-compilation of a default x86_64 machine:

# yes "" | make config
# time make -jX

There were minor advantages of the Solaris compilation over the SLES one. Like most of our other tests, as our compilation moved closer to nine jobs, the reduction in processing time was not quite linear. We do see considerable improvements in speed, but we really aren't getting all of the bang for our buck.

We also threw in some compile tests of entire GCC base, which take significantly longer than the Linux kernel to compile.

You'll notice pretty much the same problems from the Linux kernel compilation test; scaling becomes an issue as we increase the number of jobs. We see a 43% performance increase over the quad Opteron 250 V40z; certainly impressive but we would like to see more.

Rendering Benchmarks Final Thoughts
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  • KristopherKubicki - Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - link

    It brings up the Article Search box because I had to disable the article until we figure out the IE problem.

    Thanks,

    Kristopher
  • yelo333 - Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - link

    Is it just me, or is it normal to have problems reading anything but the first page? When I click to go to the next page, it just brings up the "article search" box. The print version also doesn't work.

    Using Firefox on linux. All extensions were disabled for the purpose of troubleshooting, with the same response.

    As it is right now, even clicking the article results in the "Article Search" box, rather then the article. I was able to read the first page about 5 min ago, though.
  • mircea - Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - link

    Page 3, 2nd last pharagraph, 4th line "we were ample to use the analyzer"

    I guess you want to say "able".
  • jm20 - Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - link

    wierd rendering in IE, does not produce a background and the formatting looks off. Also page 2 is not visible and sends me to the article search page.
  • Marlin1975 - Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - link

    yea weird rendering to say the least, that and nothing after page 2?
  • BurntKooshie - Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - link

    http://www.anandtech.com/systems/showdoc.aspx?i=24...

    Shouldn't the first graph list SLES9 as one of the test parameters isntead of two Solaris 10's?
  • KristopherKubicki - Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - link

    If anyone is getting weird rendering in IE, please email me kristopher@anandtech.com

    Kristopher

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