Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!pyramid!hplabs!oracle!bradbury
From: bradbury@oracle.UUCP (Robert Bradbury)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Microport 386 UNIX 5.3 Rel 2.1 speed questions
Message-ID: <347@oracle.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 17-Nov-87 21:12:17 EST
Article-I.D.: oracle.347
Posted: Tue Nov 17 21:12:17 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 21-Nov-87 12:02:23 EST
References: <346@oracle.UUCP>
Organization: Oracle Corporation, Belmont, CA
Lines: 32
Keywords: Microport, Compaq 386, System 5.3, drystones
Summary: speed issues resolved

It turns out that you have to force Compaq 386 machines (and perhaps others)
to operate in "fast" (16Mhz) mode when running UNIX 5.3 from Microport.
This requires flipping a switch on the mother board and was mentioned
(in small print) in the Microport release notes.  When I asked Microport
support about the problem they indicated that they knew the 386 was slow
and didn't mention the variable speed problem (-2 for support).
Microport's development staff should lose a few points for requiring
you to hardwire high speed operation (which disables some functionality
under DOS) and for releasing an O.S. which runs 3 times slower than it
could and doesn't warn you of the fact.  My thanks to the fellow net
readers who actually phoned me to let me know about the problem.

The numbers now indicate that:
    time cat < /dev/null: .2 sec
    386 Drystones are: 3903 (NOREG) 4226 (REG)
    286 Drystones (under 386 mode): 1953 (UNIX cc) 2093 (Metaware CC)
        Adjusting for the 60 -> 100 Hz problem yields 3254 and 3488
	which is very close to what they were under 286 UNIX.

I ran some other tests and they indicate that there is little or no
penalty in running 286 programs on the 386.   CPU intensive programs
are virtually the same and system call intensive programs are perhaps
10-20% slower.

I apologize if I raised any concerns among current or future Microport
386 users about product performance.  Once you get the speed of the
machine correct it seems to perform just about where I would expect
it to perform.  For comparison a Sun 3/160 benchmarks at 2800-3200 Drystones.

-- 
Robert Bradbury
Oracle Corporation
(206) 364-1442                            hplabs!oracle!bradbury