[KLUG Members] Re: New machine - Linux hardware? (follow-up)

[Bryan J. Smith]

"Bryan J. Smith" wrote:
> And Athlon just rules over Intel these days, especially the FPU.
> Has anyone seen if GCC can optimize for Athlon yet (I've seen the
> kernel, but that's different)?  The latest "C" Athlons are upto 50%
> faster at FPU, MHz or MHz, with Athlon FPU-optimized/scheduled code.

I meant versus the Pentium III (even the latest Taulatin).  When it
comes to the Pentium IV, it is easily double.  The Pentium IV
requires applications to take advantage of SSE/SSE2, which severely
degrade the accuracy of the FPU operations (and it is readily
apparent when doing MPEG-4 compression on the P4 using those
instructions v. traditional FPU operations -- as Tom found out). 
But when gaming, like with Quake3 (one of the few apps where the P4
can "hold its own" against the Athlon), the pace in which the
graphics fly by leave image quality at almost a non-issue.

I also forgot to mention that Intel is selling their Copper Gigabit
(1000Base-T[4]) cards for <$100 now.  They are backward compatible
with 10/100, although for 1Gbps, you need all four pairs (8 wires --
not sure what a "crossover" would look like ;-), usually 350MHz
rated Cat 5, and no more than 8-12 cables in a "bundle" (which
eliminates most current wiring setups/closets).

Other, recent ELUG-HARDWARE posts by me include:

Overcoming the 128/137GB ATA/IDE Addressing Barrier:
http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/06/0029.html

Gainward's ~$150 CARDExpert GeForce2 TwinView/VIVO Golden Sample
w/3.5ns SDRAM:
http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/06/0030.html

KT133A Mainboars, SiS' 735 for Athlon, Tom's-A-Chill'n:
http://www.zepa.net/hypermail/elug/hardware/2001/06/0031.html

Consider signing up for hardware discussions at:
http://www.elug.org/lists/#tth_sEc3.5

-- TheBS

-- 
Bryan J. Smith   mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org   chat:thebs413
SmithConcepts, Inc.           http://www.SmithConcepts.com
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