Bill Glidden wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I installed a Debian distro onto a PC that uses a Via C3 processor. The
> application I am running behaves inconsistently in terms of performance on
> this machine. The via is a 1 Ghz model, and compared to a 1 Ghz Athlon there
> is no comparison.
>
Comparing GHz of processors is never a good measure of performance
between the two.
> For example, my application reads some data from a database and stores it in
> a linked list. Each new item goes to the end of the list. The list has at
> most 45 entries. On the Via system, it takes about 1 second to add an entry
> to the end of this list. On the Athlon, you can't measure the time because
> it happens so quickly. Both machines have the same amount of memory, 512mb.
> The Athlon machine is running SuSE 9, but I don't see how that could cause
> this sort of difference.
>
> I'm open to ideas, suggestions, criticism, ridicule, and insult.
>
The newer VIA C3 procs are clones of the Pentium 4, designed for
low-cost and low-power consumption applications as part of an embedded
motherboard that "does everything": video, ethernet, etc etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VIA_C3
They aren't fast. In fact, they're pretty darn slow. I can't play H.264
video on my VIA C3's for example:
http://ian.blenke.com/videojukebox
For a firewall, the VIA C3 based mobo's are more than adequate, almost
ideal. With a hardware random number generator and hardware AES crypto
engine, they are ideal for VPN servers, potentially an order of
magnitude faster than a software-only solution with a faster CPU.
I've converted one of my 1Ghz C3 boxes into a multi-head desktop machine
and video playback machine - it isn't a speed demon. It "feels like" a
Pentium III 500, and chokes on higher bitrate video. The chrome 3d
support is anemic at best, but is "good enough" for a NTSC MythTV PVR.
Were I to make a HDTV PVR, it wouldn't be with a VIA C3 based system,
unless I had some form of hardware assisted video compression and playback.
- Ian C. Blenke <ian@blenke.com> http://ian.blenke.com/
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