So I learned about the new Sun T1000 systems today. This is a single socked 8 core system, each core has 4 threads. A lot of tech speak for a 32 processor system at the price if a dual.
So I asked… “How long will it take to compile Nethack on this system?”
The answer “34 seconds”! Now that’s fast.
Dude… that’s pathetic really. I mean, it takes an 8 core x 4thread per for SPARC to get to 34 seconds?
Here are timed builds on a 1 proc opteron, dual opteron (make -j3) and dual/dual opteron (make -j6):
single:
real 0m32.187s
user 0m26.830s
sys 0m2.336s
dual:
real 0m17.198s
user 0m30.806s
sys 0m3.230s
dual/dual-core:
real 0m8.172s
user 0m27.591s
sys 0m2.864s
Ok, now I am confused because I just ran this on my dual opteron:
make took: 26 seconds on a dual opteron
with parallel make:
-j2 13.5 seconds
-j3 13.33 seconds
-j4 13.2 seconds
-j8 13.29 seconds
-j 13.33 seconds
So it looks like the -j4 was the best option. I have no idea how this could be faster than the 8 core chip. I was going on someone else’s numbers so I will try this myself when I get back to work.
Maybe it was .34 seconds or 3.4 seconds?