Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!pasteur!agate!eos!eugene
From: eugene@eos.UUCP (Eugene Miya)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: Benchmarking
Message-ID: <1710@eos.UUCP>
Date: 13 Oct 88 16:29:49 GMT
References: <2220003@hpausla.HP.COM> <46500026@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu> <6683@nsc.nsc.com> <6684@nsc.nsc.com> <4263@wright.mips.COM> <6729@nsc.nsc.com> <10498@reed.UUCP> <4655@winchester.mips.COM> <6868@nsc.nsc.com>
Reply-To: eugene@eos.UUCP (Eugene Miya)
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Calif.
Lines: 22

Oh no benchmarking wars again...... (sigh)

In article <6868@nsc.nsc.com> grenley@nsc.nsc.com.UUCP (George Grenley) writes:
>... (I heard once that a Fortran compiler was released
>which SPECIFICALLY checked the soruce to see if it was Whet, and if it was,
>stuck in a VERY fast routine).

I checked this story out (months ago) .  Without mentioning specific
names within a VERY large computer company I discovered it was an
APL compiler not a Fortran compiler.  The benchmark was a simple
Gaussian sum (3 APL characters).  The benchmark adds 1 thru n, the compiler
did what Gauss did: you know n(n+1)/2.  It was placed there by the compiler
writer who knew the person in the APL community who did this as a
benchmark.  Serves the benchmarker right.

Another gross generalization from

--eugene miya, NASA Ames Research Center, eugene@aurora.arc.nasa.gov
  resident cynic at the Rock of Ages Home for Retired Hackers:
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