Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!seismo!rutgers!ames!amdcad!sun!texsun!smu!mcomp!authorplaceholder
From: wnp@mcomp.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: minix C compiler performance
Message-ID: <222500026@mcomp>
Date: Mon, 1-Jun-87 09:17:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: mcomp.222500026
Posted: Mon Jun  1 09:17:00 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 12-Jun-87 01:28:27 EDT
References: <1131@rocksvax.UUCP>
Lines: 31
Nf-ID: #R:rocksvax.UUCP:-113100:mcomp:222500026:000:1555
Nf-From: mcomp.UUCP!wnp    Jun  1 08:17:00 1987


rocksvax.UUCP!martyl (Marty Leisner) writes:
> ...
> I felt it took an awfully long time to recompile/link the kernel, so once
> I was up on a harddisk, I ran dhrystone to get an idea of performance 
> (yeah, it ain't perfect, but it is a compute intensive benchmark).   
> 
> Under Minix, dhrystone (at least the copy I got from netlib) turned about
> 250 dhrystones/second.  Under Aztec C/MS-DOS on the same hardware, dhrystone
> turned 1200+ dhrystones/second.
> ...  In the Minix book, Andy Tanenbaum asserts clean code is more 
> important than highly optimized code -- and I agree with this premise and
> feel Minix looks (from a browsing level) like a very clean software project.
> But a factor of 5 in C compiler performance is somewhat unacceptable.

In the Minix book AST says that the compiler is the "Amsterdam Compiler Kit"
C compiler, "which was shoehorned onto the 8088 with some loss in performance".
I don't know which machine the ACK compiler was originally written for.

I guess it's up to us, the users, to come up with a better compiler. Has anyone
inquired yet how much the compiler sources would cost?

>	1) which compiler was the AT kernel/utilities compiled with?
>	   When I recompiled the kernel, the sizes of the linked files
>	   didn't agree with the distribution versions.

I understand that the MINIX distribution was compiler with the PC/IX compiler.
-----------------------------------------------------
Wolf N. Paul, 290 Dogwood, Plano, Tx. 75075
UUCP:  ihnp4!convex!mcomp!wnp
Phone: (214) 578-8023  W.U.ESL: 6283-2882