gcc and alphalinux

[Robert Williams]

Mathew Lee wrote:

> I am currently in the process of constructing a 4 node beowulf for MD
> simulations.  Each node will be equiped with an Alpha 5XX (21164) and
> approximately 576mb ram each.  (more nodes may be introduced if an
> increase in speed is needed.)
>
>           What architecture?  PC164, 164SX, 164LX?
>
>
> Curious about speed differences between unix and linux, I tested two
> different machines with the same hardware setup.  One of the machines
> was
> running digital's unix, and the other linux (distro=redhat 6.2).
> Additionally, the kernel on the linux machine was built using only the
>
> drivers needed.
>
> To my surprise, the duration for all runs tested were approximately 3
> times
> longer on the linux machine.
>
>          We didn't see this when we compared ab-initio calculations
>          on a series of machines using different OS/compilers.  The
>          PC164 running Dec Fortran compiled code on Linux was by far
>          the fastest, faster than a Cray YMP or J90.  See Nicklaus, et
> al.,
>          J. Chemical Information and Computer Sciences
>          Volume 38, pp 893-905 (1998)
>
>          Bob Williams
>