x86 implementation for GCC development

x86 implementation for GCC development

[Florian Weimer]

To cut down compilation times (bootstrapping the Ada and C front ends
currently requires well over three hours over here), I think I've got
to acquire a new piece of hardware.  Ordinary benchmarks from credible
parties are usually run on Microsoft Windows, and involve software
compiled by dozens of compilers, but not GCC.

So my question: Which of the two available x86 implementations should
I choose, in order to minimize bootstrapping time?  FPU performance
and so on does not matter.

Price vs. performance is probably not so much an issue.  However,
non-x86 architectures are a bit too expensive. :-/

Re: x86 implementation for GCC development

[guerby]

You can find a lot of kernel compile time information on Athlon vs
Pentium, eg:

<http://www.linuxhardware.org/features/01/07/13/145249.shtml>

IIRC in most tests I've seen, Athlon is better at compiling the kernel
and cheaper as well.

For reference, on my P3 1GHz laptop, i686-pc-linux-gnu bootstrap for
"c,ada" takes 45 minutes, "ada,c,c++,f77" takes 1 hour,
gnatlib_and_tools is an additional 5 minutes. For "c,c++,f77", make
check is 45 minutes, and ACATS is 35 minutes.

Hope this helps,

-- 
Laurent Guerby <guerby@acm.org>

Re: x86 implementation for GCC development

[guerby]

For the record, on P3 1GHz, bootstraping "c" takes 25 minutes, as does
make check.

-- 
Laurent Guerby <guerby@acm.org>

Re: x86 implementation for GCC development

[Florian Weimer]

<guerby@acm.org> writes:

> For reference, on my P3 1GHz laptop, i686-pc-linux-gnu bootstrap for
> "c,ada" takes 45 minutes, "ada,c,c++,f77" takes 1 hour,
> gnatlib_and_tools is an additional 5 minutes. For "c,c++,f77", make
> check is 45 minutes, and ACATS is 35 minutes.

After looking at the test results for Athlon XP processors and some
personal tests on a Dual 1 GHz Pentium III box (slightly under 40
minutes for Ada + C + GNAT tools), I decided to buy an Athlon-based
System (with 1.6 GHz clock speed), which compiles the C and Ada front
ends and the Ada library and tools in about 25 minutes, which is quite
impressive compared to over three long hours on my old system. :-)

(BTW: I'm typing this on the new system, please forgive any errors in
the mail setup.)