Re: speed of octave interpreter

[J LOVE]

This topic is about the interpreter, but since I don't know
exactly what causes the slow down I've noticed, I thought I
pass along.

Here are two SuSE Linux machines with 2.6.5-7.193-smp kernel:

AMD MP2600+ with AMD 760 chipset, Octave 2.1.40, walltime  ~5.0 hrs
AMD MP2800+ with AMD 760 chipset, Octave 2.1.50, walltime ~10.0 hrs

I don't have CPU time but the machines were unloaded otherwise and
putting the 2.1.40 binary onto the faster AMD 2800 resulted in a 
halving the time to completion.  The problem was a near-field 
acoustic calculation.

Turns out the 2.1.40 executable was compiled on a 2.4 kernel with 
gcc 3.2.  The 2.1.50 was compiled with the 2.6 kernel with gcc 3.3.3.  
I can't compare apples to apples since the 2.1.40 sources will not 
compile under the stricter gcc 3.3.3 compiler but the time to 
completion is significant.  But is does answer the question of
why I am knowing not updating to the latest.  It probably has
more to do with the underlying compiler, but that doesn't change
that it exists and is significant.



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