Re: What now, tech? (Bill Schottstaedt )

Subject: Re: What now, tech?
From:    Bill Schottstaedt  <bil(at)CCRMA.STANFORD.EDU>
Date:    Fri, 20 Dec 1996 09:46:41 -0800

> I would like to know how fast the O2 really is.

We recently got a couple O2's and I had a chance today to run
my timing tests.  These are CLM-related, so insert all the usual
benchmark qualifications and caveats here.  The first group
relates to a simple C program doing IO, ffts, table lookups;
the second relates to CLM running some standard tests.

----
 *   machine                     read/write:              fread/fwrite:
    arithmetic:

 *                               256   512   8192  65536  same sizes
    tbl   bigfft sffts
 *
 * NeXT 68040 (32MB):            11575 10514 10256  9943  11951 11923 12358
 12259   10478 108122 26622
 * NeXT Turbo (16MB):             8329  7760  6933  6833   9216  8742  9416
 9238    7825 121591 19495
 * HP 90MHz Pentium NextStep:    11970 10069  9840  9920  11930 11209 11399
 11540    1930  46389  4019
 * Mac 8500 120 MHz PPC:         21733 15416  5000  2916   9566  9550  9733
 9850
 * SGI R4600 132 MHz Indy (32MB): 2412  1619   959  1045   1172  1174  1111
 1126    1224  30825  3490
 * SGI R5000 150 MHz Indy (32MB): 1067   846   684  737     847   817   734
 791     885  25878  1591
 * HP 166 MHz Pentium Linux:       983   727   811  878    1060  1073  1191
 1181     878
 * SGI R5000 180 MHz O2 (64MB):   1359   788   431  446    1919  1944  1891
 1885     828  24658  1390

----

        machine                     1.     2.     3.     4.     5.     6.
 7.     8.

68040 NeXT 56k gens:               4.9    9.5    2.4    1.3    116    482
 10.3
68040 NeXT with Ariel QP (2 QPs):  4.6    6.9    2.4    1.3     29    199 (117)
 9.5

68040 NeXT C gens:                 3.8    4.7    2.0    1.3     94    298
 9.5   19644
166 MHz Pentium GCL NextStep:       .47    .8     .3     .18    13     52
  .9
PPC 8500/120, 32 MB, MacOS 7.5.3:   .78   1.1     .4    1.5     13.5   61
 1.4
R4600SC SGI Indy GCL (133 Mhz):    1.4     .7     .3     .3     13     38
 1.1    2328
R5000 SGI Indy ACL (150 Mhz):       .34    .54    .24    .18    10.3   31
  .86   2065
200 MHz Pentium Pro/Openstep/GCL:   .23    .55    .24    .21     9.0   43
  .65
R5000 SGI O2 ACL (180 MHz):         .26    .49    .22    .19     7.9   24
  .63   1526

1. sample rate conversion and "granular synthesis"
2. reverberated fm note
3. just the single fm note
4. a few short sound file fragments mixed
5. a bunch of fm notes
6. a portion of the piece "idyll" (fm+reverb)
7. spectral analysis followed by additive synthesis
8. fifth movement of "Colony"
----


The 200MHz pentium case above does not coincide completely with the O2
case -- I hope to get Linux and ACL running soon on such a machine for
a fairer comparison.

In any case, everything I've tried has run fine on the O2, and
I'm pleased with its performance.