On 10/9/2024 11:33 AM, Stefan Monnier wrote:
I'm looking for a chart illustrating the evolution of CPU performance
(e.g. single-threaded or maybe performance per watt) over the years, covering something like 1990-2020.
Any good candidates?
Yeah, I would also like something like this, or maybe some way to
"sensibly" compare the relative performance of modern stuff with vintage stuff.
Like, for example, I can't make sense of whether the performance of my current project is similar to similarly-clocked vintage hardware, or potentially significantly faster.
Based simply on Dhrystone score, it would likely be placed in a similar
area to a 90s era PowerPC in terms of perf/MHz.
But, if I add an early 2000s laptop as a reference point, stuff gets
weird. In various benchmarks, the difference in performance is
significantly smaller than the relative difference in clock-speed.
Though, the laptop is also break-even with a RasPi2 in terms of general
perf (in theory, the laptop should be faster). Seems like the laptop
suffers a relative deficit in terms of memory bandwidth (*).
But, can note that Dhrystone doesn't really measure memory bandwidth...
*: The 100MHz DDR1 RAM in the laptop gets roughly 7x the memory
bandwidth of a 16-bit DDR2 chip being run at 50MHz. Sort of makes sense
if one assumes 4x the width and 2x the clock-speed.
I am not sure if just the laptop, or if RAM access in general was proportionally slower in the 90s. Or, if it is just a case that late 90s
/ early 2000s, CPUs had gotten faster much faster than RAM had gotten
faster, so there was a performance lag here.
I suspect it may be the latter, if one linearly extrapolated backwards,
it would mean 486 PCs running at ~ 10-16 MB/sec for RAM bandwidth, which
in my own testing seems insufficient to run Doom at acceptable speeds
(actual 486's having no issues running Doom).
As a complete non-cpu chap, what I care about is (my) consumer
experience;
- i.e no delays. So ditch the fancy graphics - get me a fast boot time
and a responsive OS. Only a few are doing FFTs & so-called AI.
On Wed, 9 Oct 2024 19:18:40 +0000, Kerr-Mudd, John wrote:
I remember the PDP-11/20 in the computer lab at NCR.
Last person out at night would flick the power switch OFF, and
the computer was OFF in 1/60 of a second.
First person in would flick the switch ON and the computer was
back where it was turned off in 1/60 of a second.
We used the 11/20 as a remote debug device for the 8085 cash
register machine(s) we were building.
MitchAlsup1 <mitchalsup@aol.com> wrote:
On Wed, 9 Oct 2024 19:18:40 +0000, Kerr-Mudd, John wrote:
I remember the PDP-11/20 in the computer lab at NCR.
Last person out at night would flick the power switch OFF, and
the computer was OFF in 1/60 of a second.
First person in would flick the switch ON and the computer was
back where it was turned off in 1/60 of a second.
We used the 11/20 as a remote debug device for the 8085 cash
register machine(s) we were building.
Core memory: slow to access but also slow to forget.
Sarr Blumson <sarr@sdf.org> writes:
MitchAlsup1 <mitchalsup@aol.com> wrote:
On Wed, 9 Oct 2024 19:18:40 +0000, Kerr-Mudd, John wrote:
I remember the PDP-11/20 in the computer lab at NCR.
Last person out at night would flick the power switch OFF, and
the computer was OFF in 1/60 of a second.
First person in would flick the switch ON and the computer was
back where it was turned off in 1/60 of a second.
We used the 11/20 as a remote debug device for the 8085 cash
register machine(s) we were building.
Core memory: slow to access but also slow to forget.
Compared to the alternatives at the time, it was the fastest
gun in the west.
Sarr Blumson <sarr@sdf.org> writes:
MitchAlsup1 <mitchalsup@aol.com> wrote:
On Wed, 9 Oct 2024 19:18:40 +0000, Kerr-Mudd, John wrote:
I remember the PDP-11/20 in the computer lab at NCR.
Last person out at night would flick the power switch OFF, and
the computer was OFF in 1/60 of a second.
First person in would flick the switch ON and the computer was
back where it was turned off in 1/60 of a second.
We used the 11/20 as a remote debug device for the 8085 cash
register machine(s) we were building.
Core memory: slow to access but also slow to forget.
Compared to the alternatives at the time, it was the fastest
gun in the west.
On Fri, 11 Oct 2024 14:40:59 GMT
scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) wrote:
Sarr Blumson <sarr@sdf.org> writes:
MitchAlsup1 <mitchalsup@aol.com> wrote:
On Wed, 9 Oct 2024 19:18:40 +0000, Kerr-Mudd, John wrote:
I remember the PDP-11/20 in the computer lab at NCR.
Last person out at night would flick the power switch OFF, and
the computer was OFF in 1/60 of a second.
First person in would flick the switch ON and the computer was
back where it was turned off in 1/60 of a second.
We used the 11/20 as a remote debug device for the 8085 cash
register machine(s) we were building.
Core memory: slow to access but also slow to forget.
Compared to the alternatives at the time, it was the fastest
gun in the west.
At the time of 11/20 debute (1970) it already was not.
Custom SRAM was in use for 3-4 years and first OTS SRAM (Intel 3031)
was shipping for something like a year.
On 2024-10-12, Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> wrote:
On Fri, 11 Oct 2024 14:40:59 GMT
scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) wrote:
Sarr Blumson <sarr@sdf.org> writes:
MitchAlsup1 <mitchalsup@aol.com> wrote:
On Wed, 9 Oct 2024 19:18:40 +0000, Kerr-Mudd, John wrote:
I remember the PDP-11/20 in the computer lab at NCR.
Last person out at night would flick the power switch OFF, and
the computer was OFF in 1/60 of a second.
First person in would flick the switch ON and the computer was
back where it was turned off in 1/60 of a second.
We used the 11/20 as a remote debug device for the 8085 cash
register machine(s) we were building.
Core memory: slow to access but also slow to forget.
Compared to the alternatives at the time, it was the fastest
gun in the west.
At the time of 11/20 debute (1970) it already was not.
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