NEC-4.1 performance on PC platforms

Dave:

Here's a compilation of NEC-4.1 and NEC-2 performance on various
PC platforms. This may be of interest to NEC users... I find
NEC-4.1 a good way to benchmark PCs for real world use!

Larry, WA6JYJ/7
laitinen_at_eshop.uoregon.edu

                                                             Rev: 8-NOV-95

    PC PROCESSOR AND MOTHERBOARD BENCHMARKS USING THE NEC4.1 AND NEC2
                METHOD OF MOMENTS ANTENNA ANALYSIS CODES

  NEC4.1 and NEC2 double precision Method of Moments antenna analysis
  codes were used to compare the performance of various 80x86 CPU chips
  and motherboards. A center fed half-wave dipole antenna was analyzed
  with 299 segments. The total execution and the impedance matrix fill
  and factor times reported by NEC are shown in the following two tables.
  

  A. NEC4.1 EXECUTION TIMES IN SECONDS FOR THE TEST299.NEC INPUT FILE.

          CPU/MOTHERBOARD CACHE RAM MATRIX MATRIX TOTAL
                                                     FILL FACTOR EXEC

      1. Pentium 120-MHz 256KB 32MB 14.07 7.88 22.75
          Gigabyte/Intel Triton PBURST FPM
      2. Pentium 100-MHz Triton 512KB 16MB 15.87 8.53 25.15
          Super Micro P55CMS PBURST EDO
      3. Pentium 100-MHz 256KB 32MB 15.96 8.73 25.45
          Gigabyte/Intel Triton PBURST FPM
      4. Pentium 100-MHz Triton 512KB 64MB 16.12 8.63 25.50
          Super Micro P55CMS PBURST FPM
      5. Pentium 100-MHz Triton 256KB 64MB 16.22 8.93 25.85
          Micronics M54Hi PCI/ISA PBURST FPM
      6. Pentium 120-MHz 256KB 32MB 15.42 10.18 26.40
          Gigabyte/Intel Triton SRAM FPM
      7. Pentium 100-MHz 256KB 16MB 16.97 9.58 27.30
          Intel P54C-PCI/Neptune SRAM FPM
      8. Pentium 90-MHz 256KB 32MB 17.71 9.73 28.49
          Gigabyte/Intel Triton PBURST FPM
      9. Pentium 100-MHz 256KB 32MB 17.16 10.77 28.69
          Gigabyte/Intel Triton SRAM FPM
     10. Pentium 90-MHz 256KB 32MB 18.76 10.57 30.19
          Dell/Intel Neptune? SRAM FPM
     11. Pentium 90-MHz 256KB 16MB 18.80 10.60 30.23
          Intel P54C-PCI/Neptune SRAM FPM
     12. Pentium 90-MHz 256KB 32MB 18.91 11.97 31.78
          Gigabyte/Intel Triton SRAM FPM
     13. Pentium 60-MHz 256KB 16MB 27.09 16.92 45.16
          Dell system SRAM FPM
     14. Pentium 75-MHz 256KB 8MB 29.89 15.02 48.35*
          Gateway-2000 P5-75 SRAM FPM
     15. Intel 80486DX4-100 256KB 16MB 32.59 21.16 55.38
          Gigabyte PCI "AM" MB SRAM FPM (memory = 0-wait state)
     16. Intel 80486DX4-100 256KB 16MB 33.08 23.50 58.33
          Gigabyte PCI "AM" MB SRAM FPM (memory = 1-wait state)
     17. AMD AM486DX4-100 256KB 16MB 36.63 22.26 60.53
          Gigabyte PCI "AM" MB SRAM FPM (memory = 0-wait state)
     18. AMD AM486DX4-100 256KB 16MB 40.36 24.96 67.06
          Gigabyte PCI "AM" MB SRAM FPM (memory = 1-wait state)
     19. Intel 80486DX2-66 512KB 16MB 56.29 32.78 93.01
          Gigabyte EISA MB SRAM FPM

     Notes are contained on the next page.


  B. NEC2 EXECUTION TIMES IN INTEGER SECONDS FOR THE TEST299.NEC INPUT FILE.

      Although the NEC2 fill, factor and execution times are less precise
      than those in NEC4.1, they are included here because NEC2 is more
      widely distributed than NEC4.1. Further, some configurations tested
      here were not tested under NEC4.1.

          CPU/MOTHERBOARD CACHE RAM MATRIX MATRIX TOTAL
                                                       FILL FACTOR EXEC

      1. Pentium 120-MHz 256KB 32MB 11 11 22
          Gigabyte/Intel Triton PBURST FPM
      2. Pentium 120-MHz 256KB 32MB 13 12 25
          Gigabyte/Intel Triton SRAM FPM
      3. Pentium 100-MHz 256KB 32MB 13 12 25
          Gigabyte/Intel Triton PBURST FPM
      4. Pentium 100-MHz 256KB 16MB 13 13 27
          Intel P54C-PCI/Neptune SRAM FPM
      5. Pentium 100-MHz 256KB 32MB 14 14 28
          Gigabyte/Intel Triton SRAM FPM
      6. Pentium 90-MHz 256KB 32MB 15 13 28
          Gigabyte/Intel Triton PBURST FPM
      7. Pentium 90-MHz 256KB 16MB 15 14 29
          Intel P54C-PCI/Neptune SRAM FPM
      8. Pentium 90-MHz 256KB 16MB 15 17 32
          Intel ZAPPA/Triton SRAM FPM
      9. Pentium 90-MHz 256KB 32MB 15 16 31
          Gigabyte/Intel Triton SRAM FPM
     10. Pentium 75-MHz 256KB 8MB 18 21 40*
          Gateway-2000 P5-75 SRAM FPM
     11. Intel 80486DX4-100 256KB 16MB 32 25 57
          Gigabyte PCI "AM" MB SRAM FPM
     12. Intel 80486DX2-66 512KB 16MB 49 38 88
          Gigabyte EISA MB SRAM FPM

     NOTES: FPM = Fast Page Mode; PBURST = Pipeline Burst cache;
             EDO = Extended Data Output; SRAM = Static RAM cache
             *Only 8-MB of RAM may adversely affect the performance of the
              Gateway-2000 P5-75 system.

             NEC2 and NEC4.1 are double precision Method of Moments antenna
             analysis codes using 32-bit DOS extenders. The codes used
             herein do NOT take advantage of the Pentium's pipeline
             architecture. Compilers generating Pentium optimized code are
             expected to speed up the matrix factorization by 50 to 100%.
             
             Motherboard costs (w/o CPU) are as follows: Micronics $540,
             Intel P54C-PCI (Premiere-II/Neptune/Plato) $178, Super Micro
             P55CMS $420 (approx), Gigabyte GA-586AT (256KB Pburst cache)
             $240, and Gigabyte PCI 80486AM $123. Intel Pentium CPU prices
             have decreased significantly since Aug 95.


  C. TEST299.NEC INPUT DATA FILE.

      David Pinion, P.E., submitted the following NEC "card deck" input data
      used in these tests:

      CE CENTER FED HORIZONTAL HALF-WAVE DIPOLE OVER EXCELLENT GROUND.
      GW 1,299,-139.,0, 6.,+139.,0, 6., .001,
      GE 0,
      GN 1,
      FR 0,0,0,0, 0.54,
      EX 0, 1,150,0,1., 0.,
      RP 1, 1, 1,0000, 1.5, 0., 0., 0., 1000.,
      EN
Received on Wed Apr 03 1996 - 22:12:00 EST