There are a lot of factors that go into CPU efficiency besides processor speed.  Perhaps the speedup isn't as large as expected because you are being limited by the memory bus.

Personally, I wouldn't trust commercial software to be written well.  I can tell you from first hand experience, that just because someone is paid to write software doesn't mean they do a good job -- or even have a clue what's going on.  That said, there *are* some high-quality commercial packages out there, just as there are some high-quality open-source packages as well.

As for recompiling the kernel, I wouldn't think a CPU-bound process would generally need to make many system calls, so I don't think you would see much difference for this type of application.  However, it wouldn't hurt to try it.

--Nathan Davis

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Randy Clarksean <rclark at lakesplus.com>
    To: tclug <tclug-list at mn-linux.org>
    Date: Sunday, October 06, 2002 3:32 PM
    Subject: [TCLUG] Kernel - AMD - Computational Speed?
    
    
     
    I just put together a new AMD XP 2100+ system and installed RedHat 7.2  The intent of this machine is heavy computational work (1.5 GB RAM, 80 GB HD, ABIT Motherboard with PC2100 RAM).  I have an older Win2000 Machine, dual PIII 700 MHz 1 GB RAM - TYAN Motherboard  that I have been using for computational work.  
     
    I have data from an analysis run on the PIII system (1 CPU) and I just ran that same analysis on the new AMD21+ system.  The speed improvement was NOT what I hoped for.
     
    PIII 700 MHz              96,360 seconds
    AMD XP 2100+          65,040 seconds
     
    I do realize that there are operating system issues, etc. ... but with all of that I had anticipated a larger reduction in computational time.  The code I am running is a commercial code that is developed to run on both operating systems, so I am fairly sure they work to get the best CPU time on both platforms.  I was hoping for something on the order of 1/2 the CPU time - on large computational runs like this every little reduction in time helps.
     
    Not being a "kernel" expert by any means ... would it make any sense to recompile the kernel on my new platform, rather than relying on the kernel as loaded from the RH7.2 distribution CDs?  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
     
    Randy Clarksean, Ph.D., P.E.
    Leading Technology Designs, Inc.
    106 North Boardman Ave.
    P.O. Box N
    New York Mills, MN  56567
    
    "Excellence can be attained if you Care more than others think is wise, Risk more than others think is safe, Dream more than others think is practical, and Expect more than others think is possible." - Author Unknown 
    
    ph: 218-385-3750
    fax:218-385-3751
    email: rclark at lakesplus.com

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