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Path: utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!xios!greg
From: greg@xios.XIOS.UUCP (Greg Franks)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Microport 386 UNIX 5.3 Rel 2.1 speed questions
Message-ID: <432@xios.XIOS.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 24-Nov-87 09:23:27 EST
Article-I.D.: xios.432
Posted: Tue Nov 24 09:23:27 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 29-Nov-87 07:36:34 EST
References: <346@oracle.UUCP>
Reply-To: greg@sdn.UUCP (Greg Franks)
Organization: XIOS Systems Corporation, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Lines: 32

In article <346@oracle.UUCP> bradbury@oracle.UUCP (Robert Bradbury) writes:
>Why does the 386 run slower than the 286?
[timings of 'cat'ing deleted].

Beware: A fast CPU does not necessarily imply a fast computer.  There
are other factors: for example, how fast are the disks? An 8088 loading
off a RAM disk is going to be a lot faster for 'time cat < /dev/null'
than an 80386 running off of floppies! One other consideration: is 'cat'
loaded into the file system cache and/or does it have the sticky bit
on?.  Microport 5.2.2 for the 286 uses an awfully big file system cache. 

Regarding dhrystones: the results you post do seem very strange.  The
periodic dhrystone postings that appear in comp.arch show the 80386's to
have quite an impressive rating.  Perhaps the compiler that you are
using is a piece of junk.  Does anyone know if Green Hills has a 386
compiler out yet? On the other hand, perhaps the 386 compiler you are
using isn't optimizing dhrystones down to:

main()
{
	long t1, t2, time();
	t1 = time(); t2 = time();
	printf( "%ld\n", t2 - t1 ); 
}

:-) :-) :-) :-) :-) 

Keep poking around and good luck!
-- 
Greg Franks             XIOS Systems Corporation, 1600 Carling Avenue,
(613) 725-5411          Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1Z 8R8
utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!xios!greg    "There's so much to sea in Nova Scotia"