Re: a.out binaries that are 66% faster than ELF

William Sowerbutts (btg@thepentagon.com)
Wed, 26 Feb 1997 22:12:42 +0000

In my humble opinion, the difference in speed is due to the difference in
cache sizes. All the Pentium machine's test results show approx. equal
speeds for aout/ELF binaries, and Pentium's have 16k on chip (32k for MMX)
plus (almost always) 256k or 512k L2 cache. Most 486 clones, on the other
hand, have merely 4k or 8k on chip, and no L2 cache, resulting in far worse
speed differences being seen.

Why ELF should access data in that's more "spread out" than aout, I
honestly have no idea. Must be a chemical pollutant in the water supply, or
something.

#include <disclaimer/im_probably_wrong.h>
#include <disclaimer/no_flames_please.h>

_________________________________________________________________________
William R Sowerbutts (BtG) btg@thepentagon.com
Coder / Guru / Nrrrd http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~guru/
main(){char*s=">#=0> ^#X@#@^7=";int c=0,m;for(;c<15;c++)for
(m=-1;m<7;putchar(m++/6&c%3/2?10:s[c]-31&1<<m?42:32));}
"But what do you mean, Mr LaForge, sir?"
"What I mean, Wesley, is that we all hate you. So I've decided that I'm
going to flush you out of the airlock."