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                                                        The Florida SunFlash
                    SPECmark Performance Numbers

SunFLASH Vol 31 #17					           July 1991 
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The SPECmarks for Sun machines have recently changed because
of improved compiler and pre-processor techniques. -johnj
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SPECmark performance numbers for each of the new and existing Sun
SPARCstations and SPARCservers have increased through the use of a new
FORTRAN pre-processor. This pre-processor was developed, ported, and
tuned for Sun by Kuck and Associates, Inc. (KAI) -- a firm that
developed similar compilation technology for HP, IBM, and SGI.

KAI's pre-processor improves quotable SPECmark performance through
optimization of three of the underlying FORTRAN benchmarks: matrix300,
nasa7, and fpppp. Each contains extensive amounts of matrix math,
constructing and then doing computation on a large array of numbers.
Though the details of KAI's implementation are proprietary, we believe
their pre-processor automatically restructures the array walking code 
to hold and use intermediate array results, thereby reducing
loads and stores to memory and increasing system performance.

KAI's pre-processor will deliver increased floating-point performance
on certain applications that make extensive use of matrix math, which
certainly exist in at least the scientific, financial, and graphics
communities.  Users who expect to benefit should, as always, verify (by
trial) that the performance of their particular application is improved
by the KAI pre-processor.

KAI's pre-processor will ultimately be available from a distributor chosen
by KAI. In the interim KAI will distribute and support the product directly
in limited volumes, beginning in about 90 days. The KAI pre-processor will
not appear on Sun's price list.

The new SPECmarks for Sun's SPARC systems are as follows:

    System		    Old SPECmark   New SPECmark  Improvement    MIPS
    
    SPARCstation SLC    	 8.8		 9.8		11%	12.5
    SPARCstation ELC    	17.1		20.1		18%	21.0
    SPARCstation IPC    	11.8		13.4		14%	15.7
    SPARCstation IPX    	20.6		24.2		17%	28.5
    SPARCstation 2		21.2		24.7		17%	28.5
    SPARCserver 330		13.4		(not complete)		15.8
    SPARCserver 470/490 	19.4		22.0		13%	22.0
    
The new compilers do not affect the MIPS, MFLOPS or transactions 
per second (TPS/TPC-B) figures.

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John McLaughlin, SunFlash editor, flash@sunvice.East.Sun.COM. (305) 776-7770.