Elmer- Even as an AMD long, I have to agree with you about the Intel compiler. I do quite a bit of time critical c++ and have found the Intel compiler very good. It certainly is faster that the VC++ compiler, but I found this without the MMX and SSE compile flags turned on. These flags don't seem to speed up my program, even though I have some code which should be a good match for MMX. I think that Intel has made a good product, and it is legit for them to use it in benchmarking.
What you should be aware of though is that Intel has milked about everything out of the P6 that they can with their compiler, while the Athlon will continue to benefit from such improvements. With the Athlon, AMD has a winning design, which could last many years, maybe even as long as the Alpha.
I believe Intel has made a fundamental mistake in their CPU design philosophy. Everyone talks about that CPU's in general are faster than most people need. But there is a very important trend that will counteract this: That software developers will use tools and languages which result in faster development, but slower running. Java and the scripting languages are part of this. Transmedia has the right idea with their flexible chip. Intel though continues to add burdens to the software developer with new architectures (EPIC=20 hour compiles, Willie's reliance on SSE, and breaking of time critical legacy code which uses bitshifts) in order to increase performance. We don't want this, and we don't need this. |
