[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Some Linux performance



I wanted to share with you some results I've obtained using Linux on a
new strong server.
I bought a new server for the lab I work at. It's just about the
strongest intel-based machine available:
- Intel Dakota Dual P-II MB. Fast Ethernet, and Dual Channel UW SCSI
adapter onboard.
 (personally I prefer Asus, but that seems to have better local support)
- 2 333MHz P-II CPUs
- 512MB ECC SDRAM (10ns)
- 9MB UW SCSI IBM HD
- x32 SCSI CD
etc.

At first I had troubles installing Linux on this monster, since the new
Adaptec AIC7895 Dual Channel SCSI adapter that comes on the Dakota
doesn't yet have a driver in any of the available distribution. However,
there's a beta driver, and the author was clever enough to prepare boot
disks for several common distributions, and with his detailed
instructions the installation went on without quirks.

I compared this machine to an SGI challenge, with R10000 CPUs.
Running on one of the SGI's CPUs (this particular machine has 4 of them)
I ran a certain short, cpu intensive simulation at about 12 minutes.
That's the fastest machine we had so far.
Running the new "PC", the same simulation finished in 5:40 minutes. The
amazing fact is that running two identical processes simultanuously
resulted in exactly the same time - for BOTH, that is. That means that
(in my case at least, under rather sterile conditions) the linux SMP
code gave an amazing full 100% speed increase.
Bottom line: this Dual P-II machine, when running Linux, is stronger
than a quadruple CPU SGI that costs around 10 times as much. 

Q.E.D.     ;-)


Tuvik



-- 
--------------------------------------------
               Tuvik Beker
      P.O. Box 571, Givatayim 53104
Tel. (972) 3 5714436    Fax. (972) 3 5334349
         becket@shum.huji.ac.il
--------------------------------------------