No more mysteries: Apple's G5 versus x86, Mac OS X versus Linux
by Johan De Gelas on June 3, 2005 7:48 AM EST- Posted in
- Mac
Benchmark configuration
We used the MySQL version (4.0.18) that came with the SUSE SLES9 CD's and Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.1, which was certified to work on our OS.Software: Intel, AMD
SUSE SLES 9 (SUSE Entreprise Edition) , Linux kernel 2.6.5, 64 bit.
Workstation tests: Windows XP SP2
Software: Apple PowerMac G5
OS X 10.4.1 Tiger, 64 bit (partially).
Software: common
MySQL 4.0.18, 32 and 64 bit, MyISAM engine
Gcc 3.3.3
Hardware
Here is the list of the different configurations:Apple PowerMac Dual 2.7 GHz, Dual 2.5 GHz
4 GB (8x512 MB) Corsair XMS3200 running at CAS 3-3-3
Intel® Server Board SE7520AF2
4 GB (4x1024 MB) Micron Registered DDR-II PC2-3200R, 400 MHz CAS 3, ECC enabled
NIC: Dual Intel® PRO/1000 Server NIC (Intel® 82546GB controller)
Dual Xeon DP Galatin 3.06 GHz 1 MB L3-cache, 533 MHz FSB
Intel SE7505VB2 board - Dual DDR266
2 GB (4x512 MB) Crucial PC2100R - 250033R, 266 MHz CAS 2.5 (2.5-3-3-6)
NIC: 1 Gb Intel RC82540EM - Intel E1000 driver.
Opteron Server: Dual Opteron 250 (2.4 GHz)
Iwill DK8ES Bios version 1.20
4 GB: 4x1GB MB Reg. Transcend (Hynix 503A) DDR400 - (3-3-3-6)
NIC: Broadcom BCM5721 (PCI-E)
MSI K8T Master1-FAR
4x512 MB infineon PC2700 Registered, ECC enabled
NIC: Broadcom 5705
Shared Components
1 Seagate Cheetah 36 GB - 15000 rpm - 320 MB/s
Maxtor 120 GB DiamondMax Plus 9 (7200 rpm, ATA-100/133, 8 MB cache)
Words of thanks
A lot of people gave us assistance with this project, and we like to thank them of course:Frank Balzer, IBM DB2/SUSE Linux Expert
Jasmin Ul-Haque, Novell Corporate Communications
Matty Bakkeren, Intel Netherlands
Trevor E. Lawless, Intel US
Larry.D . Gray, Intel US
Damon Muzny, AMD US
My team and I at the Technical University in the lab. Notice the slick Power Mac system behind me.
Bert Van Petegem, DB2 Expert
Ruben Demuynck, Vtune and OS X expert
Yves Van Steen, developer Dbconn
David Van Dromme, Iwill Benelux Helpdesk (http://www.iwill-benelux.com)
I also would like to thank Lode De Geyter, manager of the PIH, for letting us use the infrastructure of the TUK ( www.pih.be) to test the database servers.
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Reflex - Friday, June 3, 2005 - link
NT was designed primarily by Dave Cutler, who was one of the guys behind VMS at DEC. NT is not based on Mach and has no relation to it, although it shares some similarities with BSD and VMS.tfranzese - Friday, June 3, 2005 - link
#35, Apple's platform uses HT links (don't ask me specifics).minsctdp - Friday, June 3, 2005 - link
What's with the 24 MB/s memory write time on the Xeon, vs. nearly 2GB/s for the others? Looks bogus.querymc - Friday, June 3, 2005 - link
I'd still like to see a Linux on G5 test. Without one, we still don't know for sure whether the bad performance is due to OS X or the hardware. And it's definitely useful for G5 owners to know whether they can expect Linux to improve server performance.querymc - Friday, June 3, 2005 - link
NT is not built on Mach. NT itself was originally a microkernel-based OS, derived from the design of DEC's VMS OS via the lead architect of both, Dave Cutler. It's currently very monolithic, a bit more than OS X because they stuffed a lot of userspace cruft from Windows 9X in the XP kernel for binary compatibility.Rick Rashid(sp?) was one of the co-developers of Mach, and he went to Microsoft, which is probably what OddTSI is referring to. I don't recall whether he went to research or the OS group, though. Either way, NT has no Mach code and does not share Mach's design.
Netopia - Friday, June 3, 2005 - link
OddTSI (Poster 37)-- Do you have any supporting data for saying that NT is built on Mach?Joe
AluminumStudios - Friday, June 3, 2005 - link
Intersting article. I wish you hadn't left out AfterEffects though because I use it heavily and I'd love to see a comparison between the Mac and x86 on it.OddTSi - Friday, June 3, 2005 - link
There's a semi-big error in your discussion on page 7. NT (and the subsequent Windows OSes based on it) is NOT a monolithic OS. In fact NT is BASED ON MACH. The main developer for the Mach micro-kernel was one of the lead developers of NT.octanelover - Friday, June 3, 2005 - link
I think it would be interesting, on the server side of things, to include Solaris 10 on Opteron in your benchmark list. Seeing as how Solaris is still a major player in the server world it would be nice to see how it fares along with Linux and Mac OSX.By the way, this article, IMHO, is darn near groundbreaking. Excellent work and very illuminating.
exdeath - Friday, June 3, 2005 - link
And before we talk about 10 Gb/sec busses, don't forget the Opteron can have like what 3 HT channels?And Hyper Transport specs allow for 22 GB/sec per channel (11 GB/sec bidirectional?)