The "Dirndl" On AMD Opterons Are Impressive

[XorEaxEax]

In some cases it also leads to slower performance.

True, I noticed this when doing some Mame benchmarks here on the Phoronix forums, someone told me that -O2 often beat -O3, and while it didn't happen often the time it did was the one where it made the largest difference.

Obviously this is due to how complex it is to make correct heuristics regarding those more advanced optimizations. This can be rectified by using PGO (profile-guided optimization) where the compiler gathers all necessary runtime data during an initial run which is then used to correctly determine when and when not to use certain optimizations in order to maximize performance.

When using PGO I've never encountered a situation where -O3 hasn't beaten -O2, the downside of course is that compilation becomes more complex since you need to perform a information gathering execution of the code in between two compiles.

[pvtcupcakes]

Why don't you feel the need to tell your readers what's this all about? Why do you take it for granted everyone knows what you're talking about?

I have no idea what Dirndl is or what it is all about. If you have explained it before, put a link to that earlier article. If you haven't, put a link to an external source that explains it.

This is web journalism 101 and you miss it all the time.

This.
I have no idea what this article is even about.

[johnc]

This.
I have no idea what this article is even about.

It's explained in the article.

[markg85]

For who is wondering about the compiler deathmatch.. here it is: http://phoronix.com/forums/showthrea...339#post175339

From some months ago but the compiler world doesn't move that fast so the results are probably still valid.

Note the interesting thing in C-Ray. They seem to stay the same with every compiler in that deathmatch! Now if you look at that "Drindl" from this thread you see that C-Ray performs WAY better so, that "Drindl" thing must be doing something magic to perform so much better.

Interesting speculation in here

[blackshard]

Well, I think that since michael is comparing dirndl to ubuntu, it is something that goes inside the kernel or the os in general. Maybe I'm wrong, but it's the only hint I can guess from the article.