Messages from Usenet group comp.lang.idl-pvwave, compiled by Paulo Penteado
Re: A few IDL benchmarck results - question
In article <DgjA7.71$bl5.125303@news.uswest.net>, "R.G.S." <rgs1967@hotmail.com> wrote: > So here's the question, is IDL and/or win2000 optimized for a pentium chip? > Why is it so fast? A friend who has done a lot of Fortran benchmarking with Pentiums and Athlons tells me that there are considerable differences depending on the compiler used and the memory subsystem. (DDR vs. RAMBUS?) Ken
K. P. Bowman wrote: > In article <DgjA7.71$bl5.125303@news.uswest.net>, "R.G.S." > <rgs1967@hotmail.com> wrote: > > >> So here's the question, is IDL and/or win2000 optimized for a pentium chip? >> Why is it so fast? >> > > A friend who has done a lot of Fortran benchmarking with Pentiums and > Athlons tells me that there are considerable differences depending on the > compiler used and the memory subsystem. (DDR vs. RAMBUS?) > > Ken > The fast laptop has PC 133 RAM, and the slow desktop has DDR memory. -bob
> A friend who has done a lot of Fortran benchmarking with Pentiums and > Athlons tells me that there are considerable differences depending on the > compiler used and the memory subsystem. (DDR vs. RAMBUS?) I compiled a bunch of information on this a while back, from what I read it depends on several things. I think that RDRAM has a fast clock speed [how fast the RAM is able to accept a command from the processor and start] and is more expensive. Other factors that play a difference are the BIOS chip that handles data on the motherboard, the Front Side Bus speed processor, and the Bus speed on the RAM. Thus, my Intel 733Mhz at home doesn't take advantage of the full speed of the RDRAM because it has a slower BIOS chip and Bus speed ~ 133Mhz. The new pentium 4's have a 400Mhz Bus speed that is supposed to use the RAM better. I don't know the specifics about DDR, but I am pretty sure that it is limited to AMD systems that pose other potential limitations on speed. I know that they are running on at least a 200Mhz motherboard Bus now. I do know that there are two types of memory that vary in clock speed. I think the faster type is called something like 2600 Mhz which doesn't make any sense. RDRAM goes up to 800 Mhz which again is faster [ if i understand the compuer science principles correctly] than the fastest Bus speed out for Intel. Maybe this is to fill the part of the market that figure the motherboard industry will upgrade their Bus speeds before they adopt another RAM standard. I bought 600Mhz! Hope this helps, Logan Lindquist
>>> So here's the question, is IDL and/or win2000 optimized for a pentium chip? >>> Why is it so fast? My theory is that C++ is optimized for Intel chips. The Microsoft and Intel history is a long partnership going back to the start of both companies. I wouldn't put it past them. - Logan