CompuServe Thread

#MP performnce

5 messages in this thread
#166426From: Steve DomyanApr 24, 1995 9:28 AM
As we plan for the future upgrade to NT….. Does anyone have any benchmarks on what the rendering performance would be like with multiple pentium type motherboards? When we upgraded from 486 DX2 to 486 DX4 we got almost the full theoretical 33 percent improvement in rendering (we actually got 31 percent). Which leads me to believe that dual pentiums under NT should do welll but there isn't any data I can find. Being an ex-Intel employee I am pretty sure Intel doesn't have any numbers specific to rendering. We are pretty much a niche market to the desktop guys. It would be nice if Adesk could run some stuff and be able to advise us. Thanks, Steve
#166479From: Mark YankeeApr 24, 1995 3:42 PM
Steve, Why wouldn't a dual Pentium system be twice as fast a single Pentium system? << It would be nice if Adesk could run some stuff and be able to advise us. >> Autodesk will not release benchmarks to the public. Mark
#166593From: Michael BassierApr 25, 1995 2:08 AM
>>Why wouldn't a dual Pentium system be twice as fast a single >>Pentium system? PMJI: a dual Pentium system (I use a ASUS PCI/EISA Dual Pentium/100 board) can`t be as twice as fast because they use the same 2nd level cache, the same bus (adress and data path) and the same memory. The chipset on the board has to sync both prozessors, the 2nd level cache has to support two processors and the bus has only a limited number of lines(I don`t know a better word). These are only some things that slow down the system a little bit. Depending on the chipset and the Operation System you`ll lose some performance… Michael
#168883From: Mark YankeeMay 8, 1995 5:12 PM
Michael, << PMJI: a dual Pentium system (I use a ASUS PCI/EISA Dual Pentium/100 board) can`t be as twice as fast because they use the same 2nd level cache, the same bus (adress and data path) and the same memory. >> Thanks for the clarification. Mark
#166734From: Steve DomyanApr 25, 1995 9:24 PM
The reason is they share the same bus. If all is a perfect situation with a shared bus you would get 1.5x performance improvment from second Pentium in a 2 Pentium system. The secondary cache is also an issue, but Intel has suggested for higher performance systems to have one cache for each processor. (As opposed to the lower cost 2 Pentium, 1 cache approach.) I'm not sure if anyone has taken this approach. If you look into the future a bit to MP Pentium systems, P6 systems, etc. the real performance platforms will be x2 and x4 architectures(multiply processors). I think that since the performance is a very application dependent issue, it is appropriate for Adesk to provide some numbers. If benchmarks aren't available, the people who build the higher performance (and higher cost) boxes won't be rewarded and we will all have to live with mediocrity. Steve.