Messages in this thread | | | From | Mike Harrold <> | Subject | Re: [OT] Threads, inelegance, and Java | Date | Wed, 20 Jun 2001 15:27:09 -0400 (EDT) |
| |
Martin Dalecki wrote:> > Rob Landley wrote: > > > Or if you like the idea of a JIT, think about transmeta writing a code > > morphing layer that takes java bytecodes. Ditch the VM and have the > > processor do it in-cache. > > Blah blah blah. The performance of the Transmeta CPU SUCKS ROCKS. No > matter > what they try to make you beleve. A venerable classical desing like > the Geode outperforms them in any terms. There is simple significant > information > lost between compiled code and source code. Therefore no JIT compiler > in this world will ever match the optimization opportunities of a > classic > C compiler! IBM researched opportunities for code morphing long ago > before > Transmeta come to live - they ditched it for good reasons. Well the > actual > paper states that the theorethical performance was "just" 20% worser > then > a comparable normal design. Well "just 20%" is a half universe diameter > for > CPU designers.
So what? Crusoe isn't designed for use in supercomputers. It's designed for use in laptops where the user is running an email reader, a web browser, a word processor, and where the user couldn't give a cr*p about performance as long as it isn't noticeable (20% *isn't* for those types of apps), but where the user does give a cr*p about how long his or her battery lasts (ie, the entire business day, and not running out of power at lunch time).
Yes, it *can* be used in a supercomputer (or more preferably, a cluster of Linux machines), or even as a server where performance isn't the number one concern and things like power usage (read: anywhere in California right now ;-) ), and rack size are important. You can always get faster, more efficient hardware, but you'll pay for it.
Remember, the whole concept of code-morphing is that the majority of apps that people run repeat the same slice of code over and over (eg, a word processor). Once crusoe has translated it once, it doesn't need to do it again. It's the same concept as a JIT java compiler.
/Mike - who doesn't work for Transmeta, in case anyone was wondering... :-) - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
| |