Xref: utzoo comp.lang.smalltalk:3028 comp.object:3634 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!decwrl!parc!boehm From: boehm@parc.xerox.com (Hans Boehm) Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk,comp.object Subject: Re: Integer / Float arithmetic in ST80 (Some benchmarks) Message-ID: Date: 30 May 91 17:24:27 GMT References: <2322@media03.UUCP> <1991May21.222216.5429@m.cs.uiuc.edu> <4720.2844c7d7@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com> Sender: news@parc.xerox.com Organization: Xerox PARC Lines: 46 klimas@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com writes: >All of the statistics were gathered on the same machine (a 33Mhz 386PC with a >math coprocessor) > 2499 Savage Test 1000 times recursive fibonacci of 12 >DOS MS C 5.1 490msec 1320msec >ST/V-PM 530 2000 >ST/V286 770 3630 >ST/V-Windows 900 4290 >ST-80 Windows 1400 1593 >A couple of additional facts; > ST-80 is 32 bit, while all of the other > implementations are still 16 bit. > the 2499 Savage test is > 1 to: 2499 by: 1 do: [:a| a:= (a*a) sqrt ln exp arcTan tan + 1] >The intersting analyses/corroborations of previous net statements >in these numbers are: > Floating point can be handled almost as efficiently with Smalltalk > as with C. > Smalltalk is not much slower than C, which is already an accepted > language for many numerically intensive applications and hence should > make an excellent environment for simulations. My conclusions from these numbers are: 1. Smalltalk is not much slower than C on programs whose execution time is completely dominated by time spent executing very slow floating point instructions or library calls (such as ln and tan). 2. Smalltalk can execute recursive procedure calls/method invocations almost as fast as C under some simple circumstances. This may mean something on a '386. I don't know. If the numbers came from a Vax, it would mean that the Smalltalk implementations didn't stick to the standard calling convention, where the C implementation did. This also doesn't address the question of whether the Smalltalk compilation techniques scale to large programs. Hans (boehm@xerox.com)