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Subject: Re: Since the CPU is what really count for Chess !

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 20:18:15 03/18/03

Go up one level in this thread


On March 18, 2003 at 21:32:16, Matt Taylor wrote:

>On March 18, 2003 at 16:41:03, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>On March 18, 2003 at 15:42:56, Aaron Gordon wrote:
>>
>>>On March 18, 2003 at 10:12:56, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>
>>>>On March 18, 2003 at 00:24:01, Aaron Gordon wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On March 18, 2003 at 00:01:44, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On March 17, 2003 at 22:59:30, Aaron Gordon wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>On March 17, 2003 at 18:47:27, Eugene Nalimov wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>I just run the experiment. I used 2 otherwise identical 64-bit systems, one with
>>>>>>>>3Mb of L3 cache, other with 1.5Mb. Machine with bigger cache run Crafty's
>>>>>>>>"bench" comman 12% faster (1 CPU).
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>That means that
>>>>>>>>(1) Crafty's working set don't fit into 1.5Mb,
>>>>>>>>(2) For systems with cache 1.5Mb or less (i.e. for almost all x86 systems) for
>>>>>>>>Crafty memory speed matter.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Thanks,
>>>>>>>>Eugene
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Those types of systems aren't what people normally use. Most people here have a
>>>>>>>Pentium 3, Athlon, Pentium 4, etc. Here is something I found with Crafty.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Using the Nforce2 chipset I'm able to run the ram at speeds from 50% up to 200%
>>>>>>>(100% being synchronous) of the fsb speed. I tested 200MHz FSB (400DDR) with
>>>>>>>200MHz memory (400DDR) and 200fsb with 100MHz memory (200DDR).
>>>>>>>The difference between ~1.6gb/s memory and ~3.2gb/s memory with craftys 'bench'
>>>>>>>command was 0.14%. Yes, about one seventh of one percent.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>That might well suggest _another_ bottleneck in that particular machine....
>>>>>
>>>>>Another bottleneck? What was the original one?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>The original one was assumed to be bus speed.  That's where I entered the
>>>>discussion.  But bus speed is not the _only_ issue that can cause problems
>>>>here.
>>>>
>>>>Lack of interleaving is another.
>>>
>>>All modern single cpu computers have 4 way/4 bank memory interleaving. Even my
>>>old dual Celeron box has 4 bank/4 way interleaving...
>>
>>
>>Most do _not_ support interleaving.  I'm _specifically_ talking about four banks
>>to do
>>four consecutive 8-byte reads at once, then you want for the initial 120ns
>>delay, and grab
>>the first 8 bytes, followed by the remaining 24 bytes on the next 3 bus cycles.
>>Repeat to
>>fill a cache line.
>>
>>I am not aware of _any_ single-cpu machines with interleaving.  You have to have
>>a machine
>>with 4 banks, with 4 SIMMS/DIMMS/etc as well.
>>
>>Give me a model number for your celeron and I'll look.  But Unless you have four
>>separate
>>DIMMS in it, it ain't doing 4-way interleaving.
>
>http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_detail.php?UID=398&MODEL=MS-6570
>
>"Supports 600MHz up to Athlon™ XP 2700+ processor or higher"
>"Support Dual channel PC3200/2700/2100/1600 DDR SDRAMs"
>
>The fact that it uses multiple banks is still significant because you can do 2
>random accesses concurrently for a lower average realized latency. I don't know
>if this is how the chipset handles it, but they're obviously taking advantage of
>it somehow.
>
>-Matt


OK... perhaps you and Aaron are both correct here.

The purpose of interleaving for duals/quads is to unbusy the memory unit
as quickly as possible.  IE my quad has four banks of DIMMS.  So in a twisted
way, that _could_ be considered 8-way interleaving I suppose, although the
machine claims to have four banks and 4-way interleaving.

So, if we call DIMM 2-way, then 4-way is 4X that, which is a confusing way
of reporting things.  A DIMM clearly can't transfer 16 bytes in a single cycle
as there isn't that many pins on the thing, unless my eyes were bad when I
plugged 'em in to my quad and dual.

So I guess what I should say is that whatever a normal PC is doing, my quad
is dong 4x that in terms of interleaving.




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