Re: [ANNOUNCE] kernbench-0.20

[cliff white <cliffw@osdl.org>]

On Fri, 13 Feb 2004 15:18:34 +1100
Con Kolivas <kernel@kolivas.org> wrote:

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> Martin J. Bligh has for some time been producing results of a benchmark he 
> devised called "kernbench" which is designed to measure cpu throughput, with 
> emphasis on SMP systems.
> 
> I set out to make this benchmark a portable and easy to use script for anyone 
> with adequate hardware to perform kernbench, after some feedback from MJB. 
> All the SMP work currently underway inspired this. So here is the first 
> public release:
> 
> http://ck.kolivas.org/kernbench/
> 
> What it does:
> It runs the venerable kernel compile a number of different ways:
> It cleans and primes a kernel tree with a make defconfig. Then it reads all 
> the kernel source to cache it in ram. Then it will perform a number of 
> different kernel compiles after a warmup run compile the same as the one it 
> is about to test. Then it times the following runs 5 times:
> 
> half load: make -j (NR_CPUS/2)
> optimal load: make -j (NR_CPUS*4)
> maximum load: make -j
> 
> Optionally it can also perform a single threaded make, the number of jobs for 
> optimal can be defined, the number of runs can be defined, and any of the 
> default runs can be disabled.
> 
> Then it will print out an average of each of the loads with some useful 
> statistics. A sample from an IBM X440 8x1.5Ghz P4HT on linux-2.6.3-rc2 
> follows:
> 
[ snip ]
> A few points:
> Do not try to run the maximum load on a machine with less than 2Gb ram, as 
> swap thrashing is likely, so the benchmark will not be a cpu throughput one 
> but a vm benchmark (of course you may want to do this too).
> 
> It is best run on a non-journalled filesystem to minimise the effects of the 
> journal write-out; although this is probably not greatly important.
> 
> If run on a 4x box, the half load will be make -j2. The problem with compiling 
> a kernel at make -j2 is that usually only one job spawns so the results may 
> not be very useful.
> 
> 
> Cliff if you want to wrap this into an OSDL benchmark, it may be worthwhile 
> profiling each group of runs together and using the -s option by default as a 
> separate "kernbench-long" to include the single threaded runs. 

Thanks!
We'll get it into STP asap.
cliffw

> 
> Thanks, Martin for the idea and feedback. Thanks osdl for the hardware for 
> development, and others for code help.
> 
> Con Kolivas
> 
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