Plots for SMP, AMP, and benchmarks

Recently I posted here regarding SMP, AMP, and benchmarks. That post discussed the results for measuring an actual build of the kernel, and a pseudo-build (where a benchmark program created concurrent processes for all compilations at once). There are significant differences, because the later is closer to a microbenchmark and hides effects found in the real world load.

These are the plots.

• Time to compile using mk (which spawns concurrent compilations). The old scheduler is SMP, the new one is AMP.

• Time to compile using pmk (with the source tree hosted in ram), a fake build tool just for this benchmark. It spawns all compilations at once and then waits for all of them.

Draw your own conclussions. No wonder a micro-benchmark could be designed such that AMP always achieves a speed up as we add more cores. It's a pity that in the real world there are always dependencies between independent things.