Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!news.iastate.edu!john
From: john@iastate.edu (Hascall John Paul)
Newsgroups: comp.benchmarks
Subject: Re: Here is a tiny OS benchmark
Message-ID: <1991Apr20.221042.5282@news.iastate.edu>
Date: 20 Apr 91 22:10:42 GMT
References: <3630@dagobah> <1991Apr20.001049.6681@mstr.hgc.edu> <1991Apr20.083301.28886@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Sender: news@news.iastate.edu (USENET News System)
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Lines: 25

andreess@mrlaxa.mrl.uiuc.edu (Marc Andreessen) writes:
}[... lots of meaningless numbers ...]

} ... a plethora of meaningless numbers on meaningless and trivial
}little pseudo-hacks which don't deserve to be called benchmarks by any
}stretch of the imagination.
}These numbers are useless.

   I disagree.  While it could use some work (see below) it does do
a fair job of measuring one small, but extremely common, aspect of
system performance -- process/image startup.

   To improve it, I would suggest the following:

      1) unroll the loop [50x seems adequate] to minimize the
         effect of the shell loop overhead.

      2) use /bin/true rather than /bin/date

--
John Hascall                        An ill-chosen word is the fool's messenger.
Project Vincent
Iowa State University Computation Center                       john@iastate.edu
Ames, IA  50011                                                  (515) 294-9551