[Beowulf] Engineers boost AMD CPU performance by 20% without overclocking

[Mark Hahn]

> I am afraid to use again AMD CPUs.

choosing chips should not be about fear.

> I already have 3 Intel 7 2600 and One
> Laptop i7 2630. I do algoritms that needs much powerfull processor.
> I bought one AMD 8120,  after 24 hours , I have switched for other 2600 K.
> Unless AMD will make one powerfull Processor. I will continue using Intel.

I'm curious whether you have any insight into what about your workload
fared poorly on the AMD chip.  these particular models are similar in 
their cache and clocks; I wonder whether your experience could be due to,
for instance, code that spends all its time in cache misses (where
temporal inteleaving with HT might work well.)  or whether the AMD chip
was not adequately cooled, preventing it from scaling its clock.
or whether your test was hurt by the now well-known module/L1 scheduling
issue.

specrateFP results seem to indicate AMD is not doing badly.

of course, the Intel system is also more expensive.