[LAD] JACK and CPU stress testing

[Kaj Ailomaa]

On Fri, 01 Mar 2013 12:41:29 +0100, Harry van Haaren  
<harryhaaren at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hey all,
>
> I'm currently attempting to stress test my setup of  -rt kernel, rtirq
> scripts, and a Jack client program I've been working on.
> So my idea is to create a script that runs the programs, and also a
> cpu-load generating program (cpuburn or alternative).
> Then collecting stats based on Xruns, % DSP load, etc.
>
> I intend to show (trough brute force) that an application is RT capable  
> on
> machine X with a latency of Y ms.
> Of course this won't be 100% representative, but the stats will show some
> RT-safe-ness.
>
> Has anybody done this kind of profiling / stress testing with JACK  
> before?
> Hints / tips / advice / etc welcomed! -Harry

As far as just putting stress on the CPU, that is perhaps a good way to  
determine just the fact that the RT process is not affected by full CPU  
load. One that I see a lot is people compiling a kernel while they do  
audio testing.

If you involve specific parts of your hardware and related drivers, you  
may see new results. Some have extremely poor performance with nvidia and  
nouveau drivers for instance. But, that I suppose is beyond the scope of  
what you want to test.

I don't know what a good neutral setup would be. Seems like there's a  
great many things that could affect the results.