compile times...

[Steve Simmons]

hubcap at hubcap.clemson.edu (Mike Marshall) writes:

>He told me that his benchmark program ran on my DECstation 3100 as fast as
>it did on an IBM 3081 mainframe. But, he said, it took forever to compile.
>It compiles on our VAX-8810 running ULTRIX in about 20-30 seconds. On my
>workstation, it took about 8 minutes to compile.

Can you say "I/O Bandwidth"?  I knew you could....   :-)

Seriously, I/O bandwidth is what separates mainframes from workstations
from minis.  Compilation is I/O intensive, particularly if your compiler
drives your 3100 into heavy swapping or paging.  Retime those compilation
tests and look at system times vs. wall clock time.  I think you'll see
some telling numbers.
-- 
  + Steve Simmons                  scs at itivax.iti.org +
  + Industrial Technology Institute    Ann Arbor, MI. +
  + "Even a dog can shake hands."     -- Warren Zevon +