Linux Kernel Compilation Benchmark

by William Henning
Editor, CPUReview
Copyright July 1, 1998
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I have purchased a K6-2/266Mhz processor and a Soyo 5EHM Super7 motherboard specifically so that I would be able to benchmark the K6-2 against Intel PII and Cyrix processors. Since I have been running Linux since the v0.10 days, I thought it would be useful to perform some benchmarks under Linux. Here are my findings.

As I have time (and access to equipment) to add additional results, I will update this page. Soon I hope to add PII results (ABIT LX6, 64Mb 10ns Hyundai SDRAM, Riva 128, same 1.6Gb WD hard drive).

System Description - Super Socket 7

Soyo 5EHM motherboard (MVP3, AGP, 1M cache, Super7)
64Mb 10ns SDRAM (Hyundai, 2x32Mb sticks)
1.6Gb Western Digital hard drive
Asus 3DExplorer AGP (Riva 128)

System Description - Slot 1

ABIT LX6 Slot 1 motherboard
64Mb 10ns SDRAM (Hyundai, 2x32Mb sticks)
1.6Gb Western Digital hard drive
Asus 3DExplorer AGP (Riva 128)

Methodology

'make clean; make dep; time make zdisk'
using the same kernel configuration under Redhat 5.0
Linux v2.0.32, with this .config file
GCC v2.7.2.3

Cyrix/IBM PR233 Results

PR Rating Voltage Setting BogoM User System Elapsed CPU util

PR200 2.9 2.5X66 166.30 283.22 21.26 5:28.56 92%

PR233 2.9 2X100 199.88 236.4 17.48 4:35.97 91%

PR233 2.9 2.5X75 187.19 257.99 20.17 5:01.32 92%

PR266 2.9 2.5X83 207.67 233.75 19.51 4:35.40 91%

AMD K6-2 266 Results

PR Rating	Voltage	Setting	BogoM	User	System	Elapsed	CPU util
166	2.3	2.5x66	332.60	274.57	24.11	5:22.43	92%
187.5	2.2	2.5x75	374.37	244.5	20.38	4:47.52	92%
200	2.3	3x66	398.95	242.10	21.42	4:37.33	91%
210	2.2	2.5x83	415.33	221.5	19.96	4:18.61	93%
233	2.3	3.5x66	465	220.53	19.55	4:24.61	90%
250	2.2	2.5x100	499.71	183.13	17.64	3:43.42	89%
266	2.3	4x66	530.84	199.90	19.55	4:04.19	89%
280	2.2	2.5x112	558.69	164.17	15.29	3:23.83	88%
300	2.3	4.5x66	598.02	187.84	19.63	3:51.50	89%
300	2.3	4x75	598.02	176.94	19.26	3:37.84	90%
300	2.3	3x100	599.65	161.73	15.06	3:20.87	88%

Intel Pentium-II 233 Results

PR Rating	Voltage	Setting	BogoM	User	System	Elapsed	CPU util
233	Default	3.5x66	233.47	197.46	15.25	3:57.26	89%
262.5	Default	3.5x75	262.14	180.75	12.73	3:38.96	88%
291.7	Default	3.5x83	291.64	157.49	11.69	3:12.69	87%

Simulated Celeron Results - Intel Pentium-II 233 with L2 Cache disabled

PR Rating	Voltage	Setting	BogoM	User	System	Elapsed	CPU util
233	Default	3.5x66	233.47	324.07	20.19	6:08.43	93%
262.5	Default	3.5x75	262.14	291.43	16.96	5:32.61	92%
291.7	Default	3.5x83	291.64	262.19	16.10	5:02.45	92%

Discussion of results

Please note, in the comparisons below, only the "User" time of the kernel compilations is used.

BogoMips is equivalent to the megahertz it is running at, and the AMD K6-2 has a BogoMips rating that is twice the megahertz it is run at.

In order to be able to make a direct, Mhz-to-Mhz comparison of the processors, I underclocked the K6-2 to run at 2.5x75 (Cyrix PR233 rating) and 2.5x83 (PR266 rating). Comparing the total elapsed time for the compilation, we find that:

Comparison by actual Mhz

CPU	Cyrix	Amd	Amd % faster
2.5x75	257.99	244.5	5.23%
2.5x83	233.75	221.5	5.24%

The AMD K6-2 processor seems to be 5.25% faster than a Cyrix MX processor at the same clock speed. The PR rating system would not seem to apply to Linux kernel compilations.

Comparison by PR rating

CPU	Cyrix	Amd	Amd % faster
PR233	257.99	220.53	14.52%
PR266	233.75	199.90	14.48%

The AMD K6-2 is 14.5% faster than a Cyrix/IBM 686MX when comparing a K6-2 at the same Mhz as a Cyrix chip is PR rated for.

How about the Pentium II?

I wanted to see how the P2 would compare to the K6-2. As I only have a P2-233, I had to overclock it to approach 300Mhz :29:02 GMT"> Linux Kernel Compilation Benchmark