Re: Minutes from Feb 21 LSE Call

[Linus Torvalds]

On Sun, 23 Feb 2003, David Mosberger wrote:
> 
>    2 GHz Xeon:		701 SPECint
>    1 GHz Itanium 2:	810 SPECint
> 
> That is, Itanium 2 is 15% faster.

Ehh, and this is with how much cache?

Last I saw, the Itanium 2 machines came with 3MB of integrated L3 caches,
and I suspect that whatever 0.13 Itanium numbers you're looking at are
with the new 6MB caches.

So your "apples to apples" comparison isn't exactly that. 

The only thing that is meaningful is "performace at the same time of
general availability". At which point the P4 beats the Itanium 2 senseless
with a 25% higher SpecInt. And last I heard, by the time Itanium 2 is up
at 2GHz, the P4 is apparently going to be at 5GHz, comfortably keeping 
that 25% lead.

			Linus