[ale] Hyperthreading

Matt Smith msmith at risklabs.com
Wed Apr 14 13:30:34 EDT 2004


Perhaps I'm missing something - unless your task utilizes multiple "processors" on a single run, you're getting no benefit of running two simultaneously.

You could expect the same on a non-hyperthreading CPU while running two instances.  Perhaps not as far as the responsiveness of the machine while one is running...  hopefully you can clarify.


--Matt


-----Original Message-----
From: Dow Hurst [mailto:dhurst at kennesaw.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2004 10:41 AM
To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
Subject: Re: [ale] Hyperthreading


Yes, I run two minimizations simultaneously on my single P4 and until the 
second one starts the machine is very responsive.  It is truly like having a 
dual CPU from my user perspective.  Run times are doubled on the minimizations.

25m37.821s   Single run

49m54.143s
44m10.795s   Dual runs (The second is the shorter due to different start 
times, so this is general datapoints)


These are GPCR receptor minimizations with delta 9 THC bound inside the 
receptor.  About ~2700 atoms in vacuum using molecular mechanics and a lot of 
torsional restraints applied.  Not a difficult calculation but is pure FPU on 
C and Fortran code.  But, my point is the machine was acting like a dual CPU 
machine in a very efficient manner.
Dow


Christopher Fowler wrote:
> How is the performance? Is there a real gain?
> 
> On Wed, 2004-04-14 at 10:03, Jonathan Glass wrote:
> 
>>On Wed, 2004-04-14 at 10:02, Mike Millson wrote:
>>
>>>I have a box with a P4 processor running Slackware 9.1. What do I need
>>>to do to enable hyperthreading support? Do I just have to compile a
>>>kernel with SMP support? Are there any other kernel options or config
>>>changes I need to make? Does anyone know of any good articles or howtos
>>>on configuring linux for hyperthreading?
>>>
>>>Thank you,
>>>Mike
>>>
>>>_______________________________________________
>>>Ale mailing list
>>>Ale at ale.org
>>>http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>>
>>You win the prize on the first toss.  Just recompile with SMP support,
>>and enable HT in your BIOS, and voila!  Instant SMP machine.
> 
> 
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> Ale at ale.org
> http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> 

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