Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!wuarchive!csus.edu!ucdavis!csusac!unify!Unify.com!raveling
From: raveling@Unify.com (Paul Raveling)
Newsgroups: comp.benchmarks
Subject: Re: Anyone volunteer to do Fortran vs. C on SPECmarks?
Message-ID: <1990Dec20.163851@Unify.com>
Date: 21 Dec 90 00:38:51 GMT
References: <1990Dec11.163826.5439@eagle.lerc.nasa.gov> <1990Dec15.094523.10622@groucho> <111621@convex.convex.com> <1990Dec19.032301.4449@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>
Sender: news@Unify.Com (news admin)
Reply-To: raveling@Unify.com (Paul Raveling)
Organization: Unify Corporation, Sacramento, CA, USA
Lines: 31

In article <1990Dec19.032301.4449@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>,
gl8f@astsun8.astro.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl) writes:

> There has been an ongoing debate for umpteen years about whether
> Fortran or C is more appropriate for modern numerical programs. ...
> 
> Anyone volunteer to run SPEC through f2c and report times for Fortran
> and C on a variety of boxes?

	In comparing the same benchmark in different languages be
	careful about whether the language or the compiler is the
	factor that accounts for speed differences.

	A year or 2 ago I tried dhrystone in its Fortran version
	and its C version on an HP 9000/350 (maybe 370 by that time).
	For the C version, I tried versions compiled by the HP C
	compiler and GCC.

	Subject to the usual disclaimer of possibly foggy memory,
	my recollection is that the result were like this:

		Fastest:	C	compiled by HP C compiler
		2nd:		FORTRAN	compiled by HP FORTRAN compiler
		Slowest:	C	compiled by gcc

	Yes, both C compilers were fed identically the same source.


------------------
Paul Raveling
Raveling@Unify.com