On 16/04/14 9:27 PM, John Klos wrote:
Hi,Oh, also, DHRYSTONE IS A TERRIBLE AWFUL BENCHMARK, and mostly discredited. Its problem is that it is TOO simple, i.e. wildly subject to the behaviour of particular operations rather than a good mix, and easily gamed (many vendors did). Please find a better integer benchmark (I came to like fhourstones, but I am not sure how much of a better mix that represents). Most hardware benchmark papers publish at least half a dozen different benchmarks in order not to be skewed by Dhrystone-type effects.It's not about benchmarking different systems - it's about benchmarking the exact same system with different operating systems or different versions of the same operating system. This is precisely where we want something that's too simple - we want to look at why this simple bit of c code is a fraction of the speed under modern NetBSD.
Hm, okay, I see your point. On the *same system* it could serve that purpose.
Be very wary though - iirc one of the contemporary criticisms (on Usenet maybe?) was that it tested unspecified library code rather than its own code. If you suspect a library regression why not test that directly?
--Toby
John