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Threadripper 3960X Compiles Linux Kernel in Under 30 Seconds
11–20 of 57 posts
Re: Threadripper 3960X Compiles Linux Kernel in Under 30 Seconds
#12I was compiling the kernel for my boxes for the most part of the 90's and 00's and the funny thing is a sub-60-second compile time was always possible with the "latest gear". Like a 100 MHz pentium. Of course the number of modules you want/need to compile has steadily increased but still funny to see someone impressed with a 30 second compile time 25 years later and with a 100x+ increase in CPU power :)
Re: Threadripper 3960X Compiles Linux Kernel in Under 30 Seconds
#13We need to move on from the Linux Kernel and start using “compile Unreal Engine” as a CPU benchmark. https://gpuopen.com/threadripper-for-gamedev-ue4/
That's probably a good point: the Linux Kernel is written using the C language. But C++ is a far more complicated language to parse and compile.
Unreal Engine, Firefox, Chrome... large C++ programs easily take an hour to compile on normal hardware.
With that being said: compiling for an hour is a huge hassle for reviewers. I think reviewers prefer benchmarks that complete in under a minute, rather than over an hour.
Re: Threadripper 3960X Compiles Linux Kernel in Under 30 Seconds
#14I don't really understand why this is newsworthy, so maybe someone could help me understand. It's a big, power hungry desktop CPU with incremental performance gains over the last generation. Why is this important? Is there some kind of architectural breakthrough these CPUs are using? Are these CPUs recovering performance lost to Spectre/Meltdown mitigation?
This is a big power hungry desktop CPU with incremental performance gains with the x86/x64 instruction set from someone not Intel and forcing intel to compete on pricing and performance.
Just that alone is newsworthy.
Re: Threadripper 3960X Compiles Linux Kernel in Under 30 Seconds
#15We need to move on from the Linux Kernel and start using “compile Unreal Engine” as a CPU benchmark. https://gpuopen.com/threadripper-for-gamedev-ue4/
That's probably a good point: the Linux Kernel is written using the C language. But C++ is a far more complicated language to parse and compile. Unreal Engine, Firefox, Chrome... large C++ programs easily take an hour to compile on normal hardware. With that being said: compiling for an hour is a huge hassle for reviewers. I think reviewers prefer benchmarks that complete in under a minute, rather than over an hour.
That's why I also use the LLVM compilation test (C++) and other workloads besides just the Linux kernel... But it seems the Linux kernel results are always what generates the most interest.
Re: Threadripper 3960X Compiles Linux Kernel in Under 30 Seconds
#16I was compiling the kernel for my boxes for the most part of the 90's and 00's and the funny thing is a sub-60-second compile time was always possible with the "latest gear". Like a 100 MHz pentium. Of course the number of modules you want/need to compile has steadily increased but still funny to see someone impressed with a 30 second compile time 25 years later and with a 100x+ increase in CPU power :)
Everybody knows the REAL test is a FreeBSD 'make world' anyway :)
Re: Threadripper 3960X Compiles Linux Kernel in Under 30 Seconds
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's probably a good point: the Linux Kernel is written using the C language. But C++ is a far more complicated language to parse and compile. Unreal Engine, Firefox, Chrome... large C++ programs easily take an hour to compile on normal hardware. With that being said: compiling for an hour is a huge hassle for reviewers. I think reviewers prefer benchmarks that complete in under a minute, rather than over an hour.
That's why I also use the LLVM compilation test (C++) and other workloads besides just the Linux kernel... But it seems the Linux kernel results are always what generates the most interest.
I would bet it's just familiarity. Most people that are interested in PCs have heard of Linux, and know that it has a Kernel. Or they even have already compiled kernels themselves. Whereas LLVM is more of a thing that is known to a subset of software developers.
I'm personally happy to see the LLVM tests, since it gives a good impression on what benefits software developer which work on big native code-bases can expect.
Re: Threadripper 3960X Compiles Linux Kernel in Under 30 Seconds
#18Nice. How long to build Chromium?
Re: Threadripper 3960X Compiles Linux Kernel in Under 30 Seconds
#19I don't really understand why this is newsworthy, so maybe someone could help me understand. It's a big, power hungry desktop CPU with incremental performance gains over the last generation. Why is this important? Is there some kind of architectural breakthrough these CPUs are using? Are these CPUs recovering performance lost to Spectre/Meltdown mitigation?
3970x almost halves the LLVM compilation time compared to 2990wx using the same core count. I would call that more than incremental performance gain.
Re: Threadripper 3960X Compiles Linux Kernel in Under 30 Seconds
#20If you want to keep these compile times, better not rewrite the kernel in Rust.