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<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>--Nathan Davis</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 solid 2px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><B>-----Original Message-----</B><BR><B>From:
</B>Randy Clarksean <<A
href="mailto:rclark@lakesplus.com">rclark@lakesplus.com</A>><BR><B>To:
</B>tclug <<A
href="mailto:tclug-list@mn-linux.org">tclug-list@mn-linux.org</A>><BR><B>Date:
</B>Sunday, October 06, 2002 3:32 PM<BR><B>Subject: </B>[TCLUG] Kernel - AMD
- Computational Speed?<BR><BR></DIV></FONT>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>PIII 700
MHz
96,360 seconds</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>AMD XP
2100+ 65,040
seconds</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Randy Clarksean, Ph.D., P.E.<BR>Leading
Technology Designs, Inc.<BR>106 North Boardman Ave.<BR>P.O. Box N<BR>New
York Mills, MN 56567</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>"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 </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>ph: 218-385-3750<BR>fax:218-385-3751<BR>email:
<A
href="mailto:rclark@lakesplus.com">rclark@lakesplus.com</A><BR></FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>