By: Linus Torvalds (torvalds.delete@this.linux-foundation.org), April 20, 2012 9:05 am
Room: Moderated Discussions
Kira (kirsc@aeterna.ru) on 4/20/12 wrote:
>
>What about Power4 through Power6, which were also fairly
>picky about optimization? Were they "broken" uarches?
I think POWER6 was indeed fairly broken, but it damn well
made up for it with high frequencies and ultimately good
performance. So it did the whole P4 thing, but without
quite as much fragility.
But yes, I definitely think POWER7 is the better uarch.
POWER5 I thought was quite reasonable, although iirc it
still had that odd 2-cycle integer latency from POWER4.
In the end, some amount of fragility in performance
is quite acceptable. There are always going to be things
that perform better on one uarch over another. And it is
possible that the benchmarks that phoronix picked are ones
that show up certain unimportant special cases more than
they really should matter.
And if the performance fragility is of the type where you
generally perform quite well, but then have a few cases
where you are truly outstanding, nobody is going to'
complain.
So in the end, performance matters most. If you are the
unquestioned top performer, and the fragility just sometimes
means that it's not as obvious than at other times, I'd
be crazy to complain.
But if it's a matter of "pretty ho-hum performance, but
then sometimes if things line up just right you look quite
good", that's a bad, bad, bad thing. I'd much rather
take something reliably fast, than something that I have
to waste my time tweaking for.
Because then my binary may run really well on one uarch,
but two years down the line I will have wasted all my time
and need to tweak all over again for the next fragile piece
of crap.
Linus
>
>What about Power4 through Power6, which were also fairly
>picky about optimization? Were they "broken" uarches?
I think POWER6 was indeed fairly broken, but it damn well
made up for it with high frequencies and ultimately good
performance. So it did the whole P4 thing, but without
quite as much fragility.
But yes, I definitely think POWER7 is the better uarch.
POWER5 I thought was quite reasonable, although iirc it
still had that odd 2-cycle integer latency from POWER4.
In the end, some amount of fragility in performance
is quite acceptable. There are always going to be things
that perform better on one uarch over another. And it is
possible that the benchmarks that phoronix picked are ones
that show up certain unimportant special cases more than
they really should matter.
And if the performance fragility is of the type where you
generally perform quite well, but then have a few cases
where you are truly outstanding, nobody is going to'
complain.
So in the end, performance matters most. If you are the
unquestioned top performer, and the fragility just sometimes
means that it's not as obvious than at other times, I'd
be crazy to complain.
But if it's a matter of "pretty ho-hum performance, but
then sometimes if things line up just right you look quite
good", that's a bad, bad, bad thing. I'd much rather
take something reliably fast, than something that I have
to waste my time tweaking for.
Because then my binary may run really well on one uarch,
but two years down the line I will have wasted all my time
and need to tweak all over again for the next fragile piece
of crap.
Linus
Topic | Posted By | Date |
---|---|---|
Phoronix tests GCC compiler flags and Bulldozer. | I.S.T. | 2012/04/19 02:05 AM |
Single page view? | David Kanter | 2012/04/19 07:59 AM |
Single page view? | wainwright | 2012/04/19 08:22 AM |
Single page view? | slothrop | 2012/04/19 08:23 AM |
Single page view? | David Kanter | 2012/04/19 08:31 AM |
Single page view? | EduardoS | 2012/04/19 02:12 PM |
Is there a single page view option for RWT articles? | anon | 2012/04/19 08:27 AM |
Single page view? | Del | 2012/04/19 08:36 AM |
Single page view? | slacker | 2012/04/19 02:56 PM |
Single page view? | Del | 2012/04/22 05:09 AM |
Single page view? | David Kanter | 2012/04/22 08:38 AM |
Single page view? | Del | 2012/04/23 12:22 AM |
Single page view? | Michael S | 2012/04/19 12:30 PM |
Single page view? | Ungo | 2012/04/19 01:25 PM |
Single page view? | Foo_ | 2012/04/19 11:17 PM |
Single page view? | James | 2012/04/20 03:01 AM |
There are ads on the web? | JJB | 2012/04/20 03:32 AM |
What a bunch of freeloaders (NT) | slacker | 2012/04/20 12:44 PM |
So are you, probably | iz | 2012/04/21 03:41 AM |
Impression ad revenue | Paul A. Clayton | 2012/04/21 05:44 AM |
So are you, probably | slacker | 2012/04/21 12:09 PM |
So are you, probably | David Kanter | 2012/04/22 08:41 AM |
So are you, probably | iz | 2012/04/22 02:57 PM |
So are you, probably | Doug Siebert | 2012/04/22 11:37 AM |
Aha! | David Kanter | 2012/04/22 02:45 PM |
Aha! | bakaneko | 2012/04/22 07:49 PM |
So are you, probably | iz | 2012/04/22 02:48 PM |
That's not how the business works... | David Kanter | 2012/04/22 04:31 PM |
That's not how the business works... | iz | 2012/04/23 12:49 AM |
So are you, probably | slacker | 2012/04/22 10:31 PM |
back to phoronix | Michael S | 2012/04/23 01:07 AM |
So are you, probably | iz | 2012/04/23 02:29 AM |
Membership at RWT | David Kanter | 2012/04/23 10:24 AM |
So are you, probably | Jukka Larja | 2012/04/27 07:59 AM |
So, what do people think of these numbers> | I.S.T. | 2012/04/19 06:34 PM |
So, what do people think of these numbers> | Linus Torvalds | 2012/04/20 07:34 AM |
So, what do people think of these numbers> | Kira | 2012/04/20 08:18 AM |
So, what do people think of these numbers> | Linus Torvalds | 2012/04/20 09:05 AM |
So, what do people think of these numbers> | Doug Siebert | 2012/04/20 08:00 PM |
So, what do people think of these numbers> | Megol | 2012/04/21 08:05 AM |
So, what do people think of these numbers> | Linus Torvalds | 2012/04/21 12:11 PM |
Most problems are fixed... | Megol | 2012/04/24 06:00 AM |
So, what do people think of these numbers> | bakaneko | 2012/04/20 10:16 AM |
So, what do people think of these numbers> | bakaneko | 2012/04/20 10:37 AM |
So, what do people think of these numbers> | Linus Torvalds | 2012/04/20 12:24 PM |
So, what do people think of these numbers> | Joel | 2012/04/20 01:59 PM |
So, what do people think of these numbers> | Kira | 2012/04/20 02:32 PM |
So, what do people think of these numbers> | EduardoS | 2012/04/20 03:00 PM |
Bulldozer's Oddities. | Joel | 2012/04/20 03:54 PM |
In defense of Bulldozer's Oddities | David Kanter | 2012/04/20 04:32 PM |
In defense of Bulldozer's Oddities | Exophase | 2012/04/20 06:11 PM |
In defense of Bulldozer's Oddities | EduardoS | 2012/04/20 06:46 PM |
In defense of Bulldozer's Oddities | Exophase | 2012/04/20 07:18 PM |
In defense of Bulldozer's Oddities | anonymous | 2012/04/20 10:26 PM |
In defense of Bulldozer's Oddities | JJB | 2012/04/20 10:34 PM |
In defense of Bulldozer's Oddities | imaxx | 2012/04/21 06:21 AM |
In defense of Bulldozer's Oddities | Michael S | 2012/04/21 09:42 AM |
Bulldozer's integer execution units | David Kanter | 2012/04/25 03:29 PM |
Bulldozer's integer execution units | Exophase | 2012/04/26 11:17 AM |
Bulldozer's integer execution units | anonymous | 2012/04/26 02:15 PM |
Bulldozer's integer execution units | EduardoS | 2012/04/26 02:40 PM |
Bulldozer's integer execution units | Foo_ | 2012/04/27 07:21 AM |
Bulldozer's integer execution units | Megol | 2012/04/27 12:38 PM |
Bulldozer's integer execution units | EduardoS | 2012/04/26 02:47 PM |
Bulldozer's integer execution units | Exophase | 2012/04/26 04:02 PM |
Bulldozer's integer execution units | EduardoS | 2012/04/26 05:03 PM |
Bulldozer's integer execution units | Exophase | 2012/04/26 05:24 PM |
Bulldozer's integer execution units | EduardoS | 2012/04/26 06:18 PM |
Bulldozer's cache memory performance | Heikki Kultala | 2012/04/28 12:18 AM |
Bulldozer's cache memory performance | EduardoS | 2012/04/28 09:06 AM |
Bulldozer's integer execution units | David Kanter | 2012/04/26 03:03 PM |
Bulldozer's integer execution units | Exophase | 2012/04/26 03:59 PM |
Bulldozer's integer execution units | David Kanter | 2012/04/26 09:53 PM |
Bulldozer's integer execution units | Exophase | 2012/04/27 07:42 AM |
Bulldozer's integer execution units | David Kanter | 2012/04/27 10:06 AM |
Bulldozer's integer execution units | EduardoS | 2012/04/27 12:27 PM |
K8 divided pipelines? | Paul A. Clayton | 2012/04/27 12:59 PM |
Bulldozer's integer execution units | Michael S | 2012/04/27 03:37 AM |
Bulldozer's integer execution units | Exophase | 2012/04/27 07:33 AM |
Bulldozer's integer execution units | anonymous | 2012/04/27 08:03 AM |
Renaming Flags | Konrad Schwarz | 2012/04/27 02:04 AM |
Renaming Flags | none | 2012/04/27 03:03 AM |
Renaming Flags | Megol | 2012/04/27 11:42 AM |
Bulldozer's integer execution units | hcl64 | 2012/04/27 03:31 PM |
VEX supports 3+ operands. FPU have renaming already(NT) | Megol | 2012/04/28 07:20 AM |
In defense of Bulldozer's Oddities | Linus Torvalds | 2012/04/21 11:26 AM |
Thanks for the lesson | JJB | 2012/04/21 01:23 PM |
Side note.. | Linus Torvalds | 2012/04/21 01:57 PM |
In defense of Bulldozer's Oddities | Exophase | 2012/04/21 11:13 AM |
In defense of Bulldozer's Oddities | EduardoS | 2012/04/21 11:53 AM |
In defense of Bulldozer's Oddities | Gionatan Danti | 2012/04/21 11:42 AM |
In defense of Bulldozer's Oddities | hcl64 | 2012/04/27 04:07 PM |
In defense of Bulldozer's Oddities | David Kanter | 2012/04/28 05:29 AM |
In defense of Bulldozer's Oddities | hcl64 | 2012/04/28 01:44 PM |
In defense of Bulldozer's Oddities | David Kanter | 2012/04/28 08:42 PM |
In defense of Bulldozer's Oddities | hcl64 | 2012/04/28 09:39 PM |
Bulldozer's Oddities. | EduardoS | 2012/04/20 05:05 PM |
Bulldozer's Oddities. | anon | 2012/04/20 07:32 PM |
Bulldozer's Oddities. | EduardoS | 2012/04/21 11:37 AM |
Bulldozer's Oddities. | anon | 2012/04/21 09:16 PM |
Bulldozer's Oddities. | EduardoS | 2012/04/21 09:43 PM |
Bulldozer's Oddities. | anon | 2012/04/22 01:09 AM |
Bulldozer's Oddities. | EduardoS | 2012/04/22 12:57 PM |
Bulldozer's Oddities. | anon | 2012/04/22 03:17 PM |
Bulldozer's Oddities. | EduardoS | 2012/04/22 04:05 PM |
Bulldozer's Oddities. | anon | 2012/04/22 04:42 PM |
Bulldozer's Oddities. | anon | 2012/04/22 05:01 PM |
Bulldozer's Oddities. | EduardoS | 2012/04/22 09:28 PM |
Bulldozer's Oddities. | anon | 2012/04/22 10:05 PM |
Bulldozer's isn't bad. | a reader | 2012/04/21 09:01 AM |
Bulldozer's isn't bad. | Kira | 2012/04/21 10:29 AM |
Bulldozer's isn't bad. | hcl64 | 2012/04/27 04:58 PM |
Bulldozer's isn't bad. | anon | 2012/04/27 05:16 PM |
Bulldozer's isn't bad. | hcl64 | 2012/04/27 06:33 PM |
Bulldozer's isn't bad. | rwessel | 2012/04/27 10:12 PM |
Bulldozer's isn't bad. | EduardoS | 2012/04/28 08:29 AM |
Bulldozer's isn't bad. | EduardoS | 2012/04/28 08:30 AM |
Bulldozer's isn't bad. | Michael S | 2012/04/28 11:36 AM |
Bulldozer is made for SPEC fp | Pelle-48 | 2012/04/21 10:41 AM |
Bulldozer's Oddities. | mpx | 2012/04/22 02:47 AM |
Bulldozer's Oddities. | EduardoS | 2012/04/22 12:57 PM |
Bulldozer's Oddities. | mpx | 2012/04/23 06:04 AM |
Bulldozer's Oddities. | Eric | 2012/04/23 11:33 AM |
Bulldozer's Oddities. | EduardoS | 2012/04/23 01:22 PM |
Bulldozer's Oddities. | Eric | 2012/04/23 06:30 PM |
Bulldozer's Oddities. | hcl64 | 2012/04/27 05:16 PM |
Bulldozer's Oddities. | Y | 2012/04/25 03:34 AM |
Bulldozer's IDIV | Heikki Kultala | 2012/04/27 09:56 PM |
Bulldozer's IDIV | Y | 2012/04/30 12:51 AM |
Bulldozer's IDIV | EduardoS | 2012/04/30 04:39 AM |
Bulldozer's IDIV | P3Dnow | 2012/05/08 12:23 AM |
Bulldozer's IDIV | Exophase | 2012/05/08 06:37 AM |
Bulldozer's Oddities. | EduardoS | 2012/04/23 01:15 PM |
Clustered MT as SMT for high frequency | Paul A. Clayton | 2012/04/20 03:10 PM |
Clustered MT as SMT for high frequency | hcl64 | 2012/04/27 11:56 PM |
Clustered MT as SMT for high frequency | anonymous | 2012/04/28 12:43 AM |
Clustered MT as SMT for high frequency | hcl64 | 2012/04/28 01:59 PM |
Clustered MT as SMT for high frequency | anonymous | 2012/04/28 07:45 PM |
Clustered MT as SMT for high frequency | anon | 2012/04/28 01:13 AM |
Clustered MT as SMT for high frequency | hcl64 | 2012/04/28 02:23 PM |
Clustered MT as SMT for high frequency | anon | 2012/04/28 05:19 PM |
Clustered MT as SMT for high frequency | hcl64 | 2012/04/28 06:58 PM |
Clustered MT as SMT for high frequency | David Kanter | 2012/04/28 05:38 AM |
Guessed meaning of "strong dependency model" | Paul A. Clayton | 2012/04/28 06:24 AM |
Guessed meaning of "strong dependency model" | EduardoS | 2012/04/28 08:46 AM |
*Right meaning* about "strong dependency model" | hcl64 | 2012/04/28 03:59 PM |
Clustered MT as SMT for high frequency | hcl64 | 2012/04/28 03:24 PM |
Clustered MT as SMT for high frequency | anonymous | 2012/04/28 07:50 PM |
Clustered MT as SMT for high frequency | hcl64 | 2012/04/28 08:47 PM |
SNB width | David Kanter | 2012/04/28 08:48 PM |
SNB width | hcl64 | 2012/04/29 01:24 AM |
Clustered MT as SMT for high frequency | David Kanter | 2012/04/28 08:56 PM |
Clustered MT as SMT for high frequency | hcl64 | 2012/04/28 10:44 PM |
SOI, FD vs. PD | David Kanter | 2012/04/29 06:19 AM |
SOI, FD vs. PD | hcl64 | 2012/04/29 04:31 PM |
SOI, FD vs. PD | David Kanter | 2012/04/29 10:26 PM |
SOI, FD vs. PD | hcl64 | 2012/04/30 07:08 AM |
SOI, FD vs. PD | David Kanter | 2012/04/30 08:59 AM |
SOI, FD vs. PD | hcl64 | 2012/04/30 05:10 PM |
SOI, FD vs. PD | David Kanter | 2012/04/30 05:32 PM |
SOI, FD vs. PD | hcl64 | 2012/04/30 09:47 PM |
SOI, FD vs. PD | David Kanter | 2012/05/01 01:24 AM |
SOI, FD vs. PD | hcl64 | 2012/05/01 04:46 AM |
SOI, FD vs. PD | hcl64 | 2012/05/01 05:37 AM |
SOI, FD vs. PD | David Kanter | 2012/05/01 07:19 AM |
SOI, FD vs. PD | hcl64 | 2012/05/01 06:39 AM |
PD-SOI | David Kanter | 2012/05/02 11:22 AM |
SOI, FD vs. PD | slacker | 2012/04/30 07:10 PM |
SOI, FD vs. PD | David Kanter | 2012/04/30 09:16 PM |
SOI, FD vs. PD | slacker | 2012/05/01 09:04 PM |
SOI, FD vs. PD | David Kanter | 2012/05/02 07:19 AM |
SOI, FD vs. PD | zou | 2012/05/02 11:23 AM |
Previous discussion of clustered MT | Paul A. Clayton | 2012/04/28 06:00 AM |
Previous discussion of clustered MT | hcl64 | 2012/04/28 08:38 PM |
Previous discussion of clustered MT | David Kanter | 2012/04/30 03:37 PM |
Previous discussion of clustered MT | hcl64 | 2012/04/30 06:24 PM |
Previous discussion of clustered MT | David Kanter | 2012/04/30 06:40 PM |
Previous discussion of clustered MT | hcl64 | 2012/05/01 08:15 AM |
Latency issues | David Kanter | 2012/05/02 11:01 AM |
So, what do people think of these numbers> | Megol | 2012/04/21 12:57 AM |