Introduction

As always, when buying a new hardware, it is difficult to decide if I should go for intel or amd processors. Funny is that, based on different criteria among others the prices of the processors and the mainboard that is depending on the processor, you decide what to do today, but until you place your order on internet, prices suffer often significant variation.

I am intending to buy a new home server for linux. I want that this server:

1. Fast file server
2. Fast C++ build server
3. Low power consumption, especially in idle
4. best performance per unit of price

Fast C++ builds require among others memory bandwidth, and here Intel wins as with the new built-in memory controler and 3 channel memory access. However several articles on internet state that the 3rd channel does not bring at the moment any added value.

Power consumption

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/phenom-ii-940,2114-7.html

(to be continued)

Happy to hear that Intel has dropped the price to almost the half for the core2 quad-core Q9650 (3Mhz) processor.

http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Intel_Slashes_Processor_Prices/551-98023-581.html

I wrote a little benchmark (single threaded) to compare the overhead of allocated memory generated by different allocators for small blocks. The candidates are: thread building blocks scalable allocator, hoard,  google’s tcmalloc and the standard malloc. The benchmark allocates a total useful memory of around 300MB in random size blocks. The limit of the sizes is determined by the parameter to the program. I run a batch for each allocator for max sizes: 8, 16, 32, 64 etc. Below are the results:

./standard max_size: 8, time: 17810000 ticks, util size: 273471 kB, virt mem: 1250072 kB, overhead 357%
./tbb max_size: 8, time: 15190000 ticks, util size: 273471 kB, virt mem: 640204 kB, overhead 134%
./google max_size: 8, time: 18760000 ticks, util size: 273471 kB, virt mem: 642636 kB, overhead 134%
./hoard max_size: 8, time: 16430000 ticks, util size: 273471 kB, virt mem: 626300 kB, overhead 129%
./standard max_size: 16, time: 9680000 ticks, util size: 293005 kB, virt mem: 683792 kB, overhead 133%
./tbb max_size: 16, time: 8870000 ticks, util size: 293005 kB, virt mem: 461004 kB, overhead 57%
./google max_size: 16, time: 9270000 ticks, util size: 293005 kB, virt mem: 466380 kB, overhead 59%
./hoard max_size: 16, time: 7830000 ticks, util size: 293005 kB, virt mem: 450428 kB, overhead 53%
./standard max_size: 32, time: 5220000 ticks, util size: 302209 kB, virt mem: 472988 kB, overhead 56%
./tbb max_size: 32, time: 3520000 ticks, util size: 302209 kB, virt mem: 385228 kB, overhead 27%
./google max_size: 32, time: 4650000 ticks, util size: 302209 kB, virt mem: 393292 kB, overhead 30%
./hoard max_size: 32, time: 4320000 ticks, util size: 302209 kB, virt mem: 376508 kB, overhead 24%
./standard max_size: 64, time: 2590000 ticks, util size: 307102 kB, virt mem: 386396 kB, overhead 25%
./tbb max_size: 64, time: 1620000 ticks, util size: 307102 kB, virt mem: 351436 kB, overhead 14%
./google max_size: 64, time: 2530000 ticks, util size: 307102 kB, virt mem: 360396 kB, overhead 17%
./hoard max_size: 64, time: 2230000 ticks, util size: 307102 kB, virt mem: 343676 kB, overhead 11%
./standard max_size: 128, time: 1140000 ticks, util size: 309567 kB, virt mem: 347720 kB, overhead 12%
./tbb max_size: 128, time: 1090000 ticks, util size: 309567 kB, virt mem: 340172 kB, overhead 9%
./google max_size: 128, time: 1580000 ticks, util size: 309567 kB, virt mem: 345932 kB, overhead 11%
./hoard max_size: 128, time: 1160000 ticks, util size: 309567 kB, virt mem: 335740 kB, overhead 8%
./standard max_size: 256, time: 830000 ticks, util size: 310797 kB, virt mem: 329504 kB, overhead 6%
./tbb max_size: 256, time: 620000 ticks, util size: 310797 kB, virt mem: 347340 kB, overhead 11%
./google max_size: 256, time: 900000 ticks, util size: 310797 kB, virt mem: 344908 kB, overhead 10%

./hoard max_size: 256, time: 860000 ticks, util size: 310797 kB, virt mem: 339004 kB, overhead 9%