Neowin.net - New Intel compiler gives AMD Athlon64 a boost

New Intel compiler gives AMD Athlon64 a boost

Posted by Daniel Fleshbourne on 26 January 2004 - 14:42 · 9 comments & 623 views

A READER WRITES to bring our attention to latest issue of German magazine, c't. According to the magazine's own tests, a new Intel V8 compiler can give a boost to the performance of applications running on Intel platforms by between 5 and 10 per cent. The chipmaker may be miffed to learn, however, that its compiler can help boost the same apps by a similar margin on rival AMD's Athlon64 platform, when suitably tweaked.

According to our correspondent, the compiler switch -QxN produces x86 code which runs only on P4 CPUs, not on AMD CPUs. However, the boffins at c't used the -QxN to produce code, patched out the CPU type inquiry and so managed to get the code to run on the Athlon64. As a result the chip notched up a record-breaking Spec score.

According to the tests, under Windows, the P4 3200 gets a SPECint2000base value of 1286 while the Athlon64 3400+ scores 1404. Although, in SPECfp2000base, the P4 3200 scores 1257, against the Athlon64 3400+'s score of 1227.

News source: The Inq

Cue said one hurdle Apple has run into is the age-old practice of staggered release cycles. Marketing and distribution timetables often prevent music labels from a pan-European launch of an artist. A German music lover may have to wait weeks to buy what his friends in the UK are already enjoying, yet shortly after a track hits the radio airwaves a listener has already downloaded it and is swapping it on a file-sharing network.

"One of the things we are working with the European labels on is to get them to understand how the business works in the online space, and having them change some of their business practices," Cue said.

While the industry has made big strides in the past year to make music available for paid downloads, the red tape is still a major gripe of the online vendors. In Europe, the issue is more complicated than the United States as scores of national rights bodies, publishers and collection agencies have yet to agree on standard licensing fees. The morass, both labels and online vendors agree, will make it tough for new Internet music stores to stay in business and the industry expects dozens of new entrants into the market this year -- from Amazon to German ISP T-Online.

"Until somebody gets to 50 million, 100 million, 150 million downloads per month, which by the way is not impossible, we are all going to lose money," said John Rose, executive vice president of EMI Music Group in the U.S.

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#1 Posted by mrk on 26 Jan 2004 - 14:45: heh, some heads at Intel will be rolling around for a bit :p

(2 replies) #2 Posted by leebobs on 26 Jan 2004 - 14:49: I long for the day that Windows comes as source code, and is complied for your PC during the install... Like Gentoo only Windows-ey

#3 Posted by insurektion on 26 Jan 2004 - 15:28: Ha!

#4 Posted by yodat on 26 Jan 2004 - 16:50: of course athlon 64 would benefit from the new compiler: both P4 & A64 uses SSE2 extensions

a free boost up for v8 compiled apps - cool

#5 Posted by idbuythatforadollar on 26 Jan 2004 - 22:08: my ath 64 comes tommorow morning

#6 Posted by Jstphish on 26 Jan 2004 - 23:45: Wow, smart guys. Now there are some creative people. Who would of thought!

#7 Posted by h4x0r b4k3r on 27 Jan 2004 - 12:01: i want it

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