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From: riordanmr@clvax1.cl.msu.edu (Mark Riordan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: NeXTstation's speed?
Message-ID: <1991Jan4.201609.23733@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu>
Date: 4 Jan 91 20:16:09 GMT
References: <1991Jan4.182011.28485@xn.ll.mit.edu>
Sender: news@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu
Organization: Michigan State University
Lines: 41

In article <1991Jan4.182011.28485@xn.ll.mit.edu>, tj@xn.ll.mit.edu (Thomas E. Jones) says:
>Has anyone done any real benchmarking?  How does this compare to a sparkstation
>or a Sun 3?                

I haven't done any *real* benchmarking yet, but I've been planning on doing so.
However, since you ask, here are the results of some not-so-real benchmarks:

All benchmarks are number of seconds of user time as reported by "time".

pi.c -- program to compute Pi using probablistic techniques.  Lots of floating
        point multiplies and divides, some integer, some subroutine calling.

SPARCstation 1:  44.6 seconds
NeXTstation:     20.4 seconds
Convex C240:      7.5 seconds

chkprime.c -- program to verify that a given number is prime.  Run on a 342-bit
              prime number.  Lots of integer arithmetic, especially multiplies.

SPARCstation 1:  232.1 seconds
NeXTstation:     114.2 seconds
Convex C240:      49.0 seconds

newdes.c -- program to encrypt a file and uuencode it.  Lots of logical
            operations.  No floating point, no integer multiplies or
            divides to speak of.  Fair number of function calls.  Run on a 200KB file. 
            (Note:  *not* a DES implementation.)

SPARCstation 1:  2.1 seconds
NeXTstation:     1.0 seconds
Convex C240:     2.4 seconds

The Convex would have done better if I'd given it some vectorizable
applications.  So far, the NeXTstation has held its own in these
tests, though.  None of the tests is big enough to flush a cache.
That's why I say the benchmarks aren't "real".  Caveat emptor, etc.
Further note:  I'm using the standard SunOS 4.1 C compiler, not the
extra-cost SPARCcompiler usually used for benchmarks.  All
compiles done with -O.

Mark Riordan  Michigan State University   riordanmr@clvax1.cl.msu.edu