[Info-vax] VUPS.COM relevance for modern CPUs

[Mark Daniel]

On 17/12/2022 10:13 am, Mark Daniel wrote:
> On 16/12/2022 10:27 pm, Mark Daniel wrote:
>> Now, before everyone piles on, I understand the procedure provides an 
>> indicative/comparative/finger-in-the-air measurement of the relative 
>> performance of a VMS CPU relative to "the original VAX processor".
> 8< snip 8<
> 
> Thanks to all those who contributed to this thread.
> 
> The followup that caught my eye was from Simon Clubley who provided an 
> entirely convincing explanation for the elevated X86 Kernel mode.
> 
> Also his pointer to BogoMips.  Most interesting.  I read the FAQ and 
> accessed the github code.  Quite straighforward.  Might be a good 
> replacement as a general performance metric.
> 
> https://github.com/vitalyvch/Bogo/blob/BogoMIPS_v1.3/bogomips.c
8< snip 8<

For general VMS comparative usage something more VMS-measuring is 
needed.  I looked about the 'net and nothing sprang out.  I wonder what 
VSI are using for metrics on X86 development?  Anything lurking in the 
DECUS/Freeware repositories I missed?

Anyway, in the absence of anything else, I was thinking about what may 
consume "non-productive" VMS cycles (i.e. non-USER mode crunching :-) 
and all I could think of were the transitions between USER, EXEC and 
KERNEL modes.  As required by RMS, $QIO, drivers, etc., etc.  No SUPER 
modes measured here.

With this in mind I knocked-up a small program to repeatedly call a 
function using $CMEXEC which calls a function using $CMKRNL and that is 
that.  It measures how much effort is required compared to the simple 
USER mode loop and reports it as b[ogo]VUPs.

https://wasd.vsm.com.au/wasd_tmp/bogovups.c

The real disappointment is my X86 VM.  The rest of the results seem in 
line with expectations.

PS.  Looking for ideas, suggestions, criticism(s), etc. here...

-- 
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other than the relative cuteness of this or that puppy-dog, needs 
seriously to examine their critical thinking.