[rescue] point of pride in SGI R10k vs. 1Ghz x86...

[Dave McGuire]

On November 13, Patrick Giagnocavo wrote:
> >   I wonder, Patrick...in this case, was gimp compiled to take full
> > advantage of the R10K processor, with a decent-for-MIPS-arch
> > (i.e. SGI's, not GCC) compiler?  If not, it's likely that it could do
> > even better.
> 
> I grabbed the binary version of Gimp 1.2 from freeware.sgi.com .  My
> guess is that it was SGI's compiler.

  In that case, it's likely to have been compiled to run on any
processor from the R4K up.  Compiling gimp is a bit of a pain, but you
might see significant performance gains when compiling specifically
for the R10K...so it might be worth the trouble!

> I think the 1MB of cache doesn't hurt, along with the higher FLOPs you
> get.

  ...and the fact that the architecture doesn't suck. :)

> Note that the SGI's use slower 60ns 72pin SIMMs, while the Athlon has
> 266DDR or whatever it is called.  
> 
> So memory latency could be higher, yet the SGI still done good.

  Slower memory, sure...but likely not a slower memory *subsystem*.
PeeCees aren't known for their stellar memory subsystem designs.  I
don't have hard numbers, but I'd sure be interested if anyone does.
James L. perhaps?

      -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire
St. Petersburg, FL