Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!me!radio.astro!helios!root
From: root@helios.toronto.edu (Operator)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: SPARC vs. MIPS on gcc
Keywords: SPARC, MIPS
Message-ID: <677@helios.toronto.edu>
Date: 22 Dec 88 17:54:09 GMT
References: <82150@sun.uucp> <697@hscfvax.harvard.edu>
Reply-To: sysruth@helios.physics.utoronto.ca (Ruth Milner)
Organization: University of Toronto Physics/Astronomy/CITA
Lines: 32

In article <697@hscfvax.harvard.edu> pavlov@hscfvax.harvard.edu (G.Pavlov) writes:
>In article <82150@sun.uucp>, edkelly%aisling@Sun.COM (Ed Kelly) writes:
>> 
>>             A COMPARISON OF SPARC VS MIPS ON A LARGE C PROGRAM.
>> 
>> For the comparison we ...
>> ... compiled the identical source on a Sun-4/280 with the SPARC compiler
>> to produce a SPARC binary, and on a MIPS M/1000 with the MIPS compiler to 
>> produce a MIPS binary.              ^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>  Why did you not use a current-generation MIPS in the comparison ???

But that would hardly be a fair test. The Sun 4/280 has been out for well
over a year now, as has the M/1000. They are same-generation machines. 
And while we all know that MIPS has a new R3000 RISC chip, has anybody
seen a machine using it in full operation yet? It will probably be out
shortly, but I don't doubt Sun has something in the works as well (they'd
have to if they want to keep selling machines). Then we can compare the two 
of those.

Of course, even comparing a year-old Sun 4 to a year-old M/1000, the MIPS
machine wins hands down. We have found the M/1000 to be at least 3 times
faster than a Sun 4/280, for both C and Fortran. Admittedly part of this
advantage is due to MIPS' terrific compilers, but hey, that's all part of
the contest. Ultimate performance is what counts, not just hardware speed,
and more companies would do well to follow MIPS' example of carefully
optimizing their compilers for their RISC architecture.
-- 
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