[linux-audio-dev] Athlon64 .. performance boost ?

[Robert Jonsson]

Thursday 16 October 2003 12.36 skrev Benno Senoner:
> Robert Jonsson wrote:
> >Since we are in a world where 64bit native is only a recompile away
> > (tm)... Anyone have any insights on the possible performance improvements
> > with that perspective?
> >
> >I've heard the Athlon64 has lots of registers, lots of cache, more
> > pipelines and, well, it's 64bit, it sure sounds as if it would make one
> > hell of a difference, right?
> >
> >/Robert
>
> I'm curious too about the performance boost we can achieve by
> recompiling HD Recording and software sampler/synths
> as 64bit.
> Any estimates ? (eg the same app delivers 50% more performance when run
> in 64bit mode)  I mean: the Athlon 64 should provide higher memory
> bandwidth which is beneficial anyway
> but I'm curious if synthesis/processing is sped up too (by larger
> caches, 64bit cache bus etc).

The x86 has always been short of registers, which is perhaps the primary  
weapon the compiler can use to optimize code. Athlon64 remedies this by 
doubling the size (32->64) and the amount (8->16) of all integer registers. 
SSE also have double the amount of registers which (i think) benefits 
floating point work (if the compiler supports it).

But... guessing is but all we can do (i guess), until gcc (or similar?) 
supports this processor well...unless they already do so(?)...

/Robert