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Date:      Tue, 06 Apr 1999 04:20:38 -0700
From:      Darren Pilgrim <dpilgrim@uswest.net>
To:        unknown@riverstyx.net
Cc:        Mark Ovens <marko@uk.radan.com>, Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>, Leif Neland <leif@neland.dk>, FreeBSD Questions <questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: K6-2/333, was: Re: Debug kernel by default (was: System sizewith-g)
Message-ID:  <3709EE06.77F97B9E@uswest.net>
References:  <Pine.LNX.4.04.9904051744500.31071-100000@hades.riverstyx.net>

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unknown@riverstyx.net wrote:
>On Mon, 5 Apr 1999, Darren Pilgrim wrote:
>>unknown@riverstyx.net wrote:
>>>I may be out to lunch on this one, but I'm pretty sure that the multiplier
>>>is for the internal clock of the chip.  So, if, after applying the
>>>multiplier to one chip you get 300MHz, and after applying a different
>>>multiplier to a different chip with a different bus speed you also get
>>>300MHz, you get two chips that perform the exact same number of
>>>operations/sec.  The difference is the bus speed, which affects I/O
>>>performance, etc.  A 100 MHz bus with a x3 multiplier will outperform a 66
>>>MHz bus with a x4.5 multiplier because the CPU will have to wait more
>>>often when it wants to fetch non-cached data from RAM.
>>
>>While this is mathematically and theoretically sound thinking, tests
>>have shown that there is little CPU/memory performance gain with a
>>100MHz bus.  Just take a look at www.tomshardware.com.  As for my own
>>systems, I run K6-2 333s at 5x66 just because it sets the PCI and AGP
>>clocks at their spec'd rate of 33 and 66MHz, respectively, while
>>providing the CPU's spec'd 333MHz.
>
>I've seen good speed gains by moving to a 100MHz bus, although this was
>for servers that were doing a lot of database work and heavy network
>traffic.  Perhaps it wouldn't matter much for servers doing more
>calculation-intensive work?

Aye, in a server setup a faster bus does make a difference, but my
reference (Tom's HW) is for workstations.  Did I miss the first part
of the thread, was this discussion about servers?  If so, my apologies
for my misunderstanding.

Disk and memory work in a server can max a slower FSB, but if the
server is being used for CPU-intensive work, then what's the point of
spending extra for a server?

-- 
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gryph@mindless.com           /  \/OC/URNE       truth of another world
ICQ: 29880099       Death is not a kill -9, just a                    
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