[Simh] What is the best machine to run simh?

[John Floren]

On Jan 24, 2008 1:09 PM, Boucher, François <boucher.francois at uqam.ca> wrote:
> Hi to all!
>
> I am about to purchase some hardware to implement a 6 nodes VAX-VMS cluster.
> All nodes will be running simh-vax.
>
> In this setup, CPU performances will be of high importance.  I would like from members of the simh mailing list that they share their performance results.
> So everybody that has to implement a simh setup could know what machine type and OS would be the best.
>
> Also, to compare every machine with a common point of comparison, the same
> Benchmark should be used. I propose the freely downloadable benchmark from SRI International: http://www.softresint.eu/downloads/pt_vax.exe
> You can also download the same in .zip format:
> http://www.softresint.eu/downloads/pt_vax.zip
>
> To run the benchmark, simply do: run pt_vax.exe
> It takes a few minutes, and displays results on screen.
>
> Just for your info, my vax's speed record is obtained with a HP DL360 G5 equipped with 2 dual core CPUs Intel 5160, 4MB L2 cache, 3.0GHz, inline optimisations done.  Pasted here are my benchmark result and /proc/cpuinfo from the host machine, running Linux.
>
> $ run pt_vax
> Emulated VAX CPU comparative performance test, version 1.0
> Copyright 2006 Software Resources International.
> This test is not suitable to measure overall system performance.
> No rights can be derived from the execution or the output of this test
> Adjusting test length for fixed and floating point to 10 seconds/unit
> Test started on Mon Jan 21 16:31:40 2008, for a MicroVAX 3900 Series CPU with VMS V7.3
>
> Sequential test results:
>
>                MIPs       Dhrystones   VUPs
> Run 0          22.2        58823       31.2
> Run 1          22.2        58823       31.2
> Run 2          22.2        58823       31.0
> Run 3          25.0        58823       31.0
> ---------------------------------------------
> Average        22.9        58823       31.1
>
> Interleaved test results:
>
>                MIPs       Dhrystones   VUPs
> Run0           22.2        58823       31.2
> Run1           22.2        58823       31.2
> Run2           22.2        58823       31.2
> Run 3          22.2        58823       31.2
> ---------------------------------------------
> Average        22.2        58823       31.2
>
> Test ended on Mon Jan 21 16:35:32 2008, checksum A8CC98F0
> $
>
> Output from /proc/cpuinfo:
> processor       : 0
> vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
> cpu family      : 6
> model           : 15
> model name      : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU            5160  @ 3.00GHz
> stepping        : 6
> cpu MHz         : 3000.260
> cache size      : 4096 KB
> physical id     : 0
> siblings        : 2
> core id         : 0
> cpu cores       : 2
> fdiv_bug        : no
> hlt_bug         : no
> f00f_bug        : no
> coma_bug        : no
> fpu             : yes
> fpu_exception   : yes
> cpuid level     : 10
> wp              : yes
> flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe lm constant_tsc pni monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr dca lahf_lm
> bogomips        : 6004.48
>
> Please note that the list has a 40KB message size limit.  Please don't include previous thread when replying or the limit will be reached.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Francois Boucher ing.

Just for the hell of it, I ran the benchmark on one of my university's
VAX systems. I don't know if I should be surprised or not at the
results, which exceeded Marc's and surpassed Francois' MIPS results
while coming close on Dhrystones and a little over half on VUPS.
Perhaps it's a testimonial to the quality of the VAX, or it indicates
how even a good simulator like simh has a hard time measuring up to
the real thing, or maybe it just doesn't mean anything. Of course, the
4000-90 is one of the fastest you could get, so this is probably an
exception rather than a rule.
Here are the results:

Test started on Thu Jan 24 17:09:34 2008, for a VAXstation 4000-90 CPU
with VMS V6.2

Sequential test results:

               MIPs       Dhrystones   VUPs
Run 0          25.0        52631       19.4
Run 1          22.2        58479       19.4
Run 2          25.0        58479       19.6
Run 3          25.0        52631       19.4
---------------------------------------------
Average        24.3        55555       19.4

Interleaved test results:

               MIPs       Dhrystones   VUPs
Run 0          25.0        52631       19.0
Run 1          25.0        52631       19.6
Run 2          25.0        47846       18.0
Run 3          25.0        52631       19.6
---------------------------------------------
Average        25.0        51434       19.1

Test ended on Thu Jan 24 17:13:29 2008, checksum D1CE00D0




John
-- 
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