C++: EGCS perf. vs GCC

[Alex Maranda]

please read below

Alex Maranda         mailto: amaranda@spider.com
Spider Software Ltd. Tel: +44 (0)131 4757036
Edinburgh, UK        http://members.xoom.com/Alex_Maranda
STREAMS based communications protocols for embedded systems

On Thu, 10 Dec 1998, Casper Dik wrote:

> 
> 
> I couldn't help noticing your posts.  
> 
I've stopped eventually :-), but I'll strike back any time now, as I've
learned that the key optimisations vs. instruction scheduling are
activated for pgcc by -O6; I've only benchmarked with -O3.

> 
> I was wondering whether you used egcs/gcc for SPARC as well.
for my daily job...I don't have an Ultra II/333Mhz on my desk though, so a
comparison with the PII/350 at home would be meaningless.

> 
> I'm aware that gcc 2.8.1 sucks compared to Sun's compiler; I don't
> know whether egcs is really all that much better.
Now that's an unfair comment; I've read the paper a couple of weeks ago. I
will never claim that gcc is better than Sun's CC, but there is no
reference in the paper as for the flags used (just a general statement
like: 'tuned for optimum performance').

> 
> If you wish, there's an evaluation copy of Sun's C/C++ compilers
> available from access1.Sun.com  (the new C++ compiler should
> be much more standards compliant and generate *much* better code
> for UltraSPARC than our older compiler).
Most annoying in the article is the comparison between the Workshop and
the command-line gdb; when looking at the latest DDD I can understand
Sun's fears :-)

> 
> Othewrwrise, if you benchmark is easy to perform (self-contained and
> such) I'd be happy to compare egcs & Sun C results on my Ultra.
Yes and no. It is extremely easy for me to set it up, but then I wrote the
network simulator myself. You will have to install a GUI and use it to
start the simulation, and modify a CFLAGS macro in a Makefile when you
change flags. And of course recompile a library and the simulation
executable. It's easier than it sounds, it takes me less than a minute
(well, maybe two :-) to produce a new executable.
Have a look at:
http://members.xoom.com/Alex_Maranda/NetSim++/home.html

If your machine is Ultra II/ 300,333Mhz I am definitely interested. With
the side comment that the outcome of the benchmark is irrelevant for the
previous x86 thread, and most relevant for the performance of the Haifa
instruction scheduler vs. Sun's instruction scheduler.

Cheers,
Alex