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Subject: Re: RAM properties

Author: Robert Hyatt

Date: 14:50:29 07/17/03

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On July 17, 2003 at 08:12:55, Vincent Diepeveen wrote:

>On July 16, 2003 at 18:22:34, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>
>>On July 16, 2003 at 16:46:54, Vincent Diepeveen wrote:
>>
>>>On July 16, 2003 at 10:31:09, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>
>>>>On July 16, 2003 at 07:13:14, Vincent Diepeveen wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On July 15, 2003 at 20:06:36, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>On July 15, 2003 at 17:14:45, Gerd Isenberg wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>On July 15, 2003 at 09:33:39, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>On July 15, 2003 at 06:24:58, Vincent Diepeveen wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>On July 14, 2003 at 16:07:27, Robert Hyatt wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>You measure the latency with those benches of sequential reads.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>No.  lm-bench does _random_ reads and computes the _random-access_
>>>>>>>>latency.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Don't know why you have a problem grasping that.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>So already opened cache lines you can get data faster from than
>>>>>>>>>random reads to memory.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>That also makes no sense.  Perhaps you mean "already opened memory
>>>>>>>>rows"?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>Random reads to memory are about 280 ns at single cpu P4 and about 400ns at dual
>>>>>>>>>P4s.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>No they aren't.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Bob, i found nothing wrong with Vincent's code. He does N-random hashreads and
>>>>>>>aggregates the time used. I thought about some factor 2 error - but found no one
>>>>>>>so far. Random Hashreads, like chess programs do.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>1e9 random hash reads take 265 seconds (including ~60 seconds overhead) on my
>>>>>>>athlon-pc, however latency is defined. Any explanation? Any systematical error
>>>>>>>or assumption? What does lm-bench do, to measure latency?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Regards,
>>>>>>>Gerd
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>It is possible to cause _other_ problems.  IE you can push the instructions
>>>>>>in the loop out of cache, for one thing.  There are others.  The best numbers
>>>>>>I have seen come from lm-bench.  It was not a quick and dirty program, it has
>>>>>>a lot of research behind it to address specific issues that were pointed out
>>>>>>over a period of a year.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>It is very easy to use a "low impedence probe" if you know what that means.  It
>>>>>>actually affects the circuit it is measuring.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>200+ns seems way high to me, when the chip latency is less than 1/3 of that.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>again, I'd run lm-bench on your box to see what it says, then you have to
>>>>>>reconcile the differences.
>>>>>
>>>>>Bob, i just want a yes or a no:
>>>>>
>>>>>Do you recognize that already opened cache lines to the RAM you can read faster
>>>>>than non-opened cache lines at the ram?
>>>>
>>>>There is no such thing as "already opened cache lines to the RAM".
>>>>
>>>>If you mean a "column open" then yes, successive reads from within that column
>>>>are faster.  But _not_ 2x faster or 3x faster.
>>>>
>>>>It is a well-known issue that started with fast page mode ram, and continued
>>>>thru today.
>>>
>>>Then how the hell can you claim around 125 ns for your laptop as being the
>>>'random latency'.
>>>
>>>In fact it's more than a factor 2 slower.
>>
>>Simple.  When sequentially stepping thru memory, it is _faster_ than
>>130ns.
>
>400ns

Any time you want to make the wager, I'll _prove_ that memory latency
on my laptop is 130 ns.

Again, "latency:  the time to read a single address from some point in
memory."  Nothing more, nothing less.  If you blow the TLB with your large
memory so that _your_ memory reads take three memory cycles to fetch the
data, that's fine.  But that is _not_ the memory latency.  That is 3x the
memory latency caused by a faulty memory addressing approach used in your
program.

I don't have that problem, myself.

>
>>Wasn't that easy???
>>
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>that is my only question.
>>>>
>>>>Hopefully you have an answer and can move on to something else you don't
>>>>understand now.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>Best regards,
>>>>>Vincent



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