Benchmarks

[Robert Myers]

Scott Robert Ladd wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Please recommend compiler and performance benchmarks for C, C++, Java, 
> and Fortran compilers on GNU/Linux systems. What do *you* want to know 
> about these compilers?
>
> <snip>
>
> My original comparisons of gcc and icc 
> (http://www.coyotegulch.com/reviews/index.html) were rudimentary at 
> best, far simpler than what I would have done for a formal paper or 
> print publication. My intent was to share information I gathered for 
> my own purposes; never in my wildest dreams did I expect a 
> quarter-million people (in terms of unique sites viewing my article) 
> to care about a few tables of numbers! 

I looked at your website some time back and was disappointed that you 
had not used a more comprehensive benchmark, like nbench.  nbench is 
probably flawed because it hasn't gotten any work in a while, but it's 
the most generally relevant open-source benchmark I know of.  BSD 
distributions have a ports collection of benchamrks, which includes nbench.

I know it's a tease to say it (no time to get a web-site up), but nbench 
has yielded some interesting surprises about how gcc and icc do on P3 
and P4 architectures in the various incarnations of both compilers.

Relying on the closed source SPEC benchmarks is, well, <expletive 
deleted>.  The open source community needs its own open source benchmarks.

Please reply to rmyers@rustuck.com.

RM