Intel CPU comparison: P4 vs Atom

[sje]

Just a single data point here comparing an Intel 3.0 GHz P4 with the Intel 1.6 GHz Atom using a long search with my bitboard chess program. Both CPUs are 32 bit chips with the usual Intel hype, er, "hyperthreading". The OS is Ubuntu 9.04 Linux and the program executables are the same.

Search times:

3.0 GHz P4: 13m 31s (811 seconds)
1.6 GHz Atom: 19m 49s (1189 seconds)

The factor is 1.47 in favor of the P4. When normalized for clock frequency, the factor is 1.27 in favor of the Atom.

Comments:

1) Running a bitboard program on a 32 bit machine will always take a hit when compared to using a 64 bit CPU.

2) Why an Intel Atom? The Atom in question is what's running my new Acer Aspire One, a small but feature loaded netbook that cost only US$300.

[mcostalba]

Search times:

3.0 GHz P4: 13m 31s (811 seconds)
1.6 GHz Atom: 19m 49s (1189 seconds)

The factor is 1.47 in favor of the P4. When normalized for clock frequency, the factor is 1.27 in favor of the Atom.

I would not think is fair to normalize clock frequency because P4 architecture is very different from Atom one and is made so to allow very high frequency with the same silicon technology of P3 that is more similar to the Atom one.

Clock frequency is many years that is NO more a good indicator of the processor power. It has been for some years a marketing argument (that's one of the main reasons behind P4 architecture, and that's one of main reason why P4 failed in the long term).

Nowdays the fallacy clock frequency argumentation it seems has been removed even from marketing stuff....this is a good thing IMHO.

[hgm]

I thought the Atom was more P-I-like than P-III-like. Or is it an out-of-order machine?

[sje]

Intel Pentium Pro T1350 (notebook CPU) 1.86 GHz

1.86 GHz T1350: 9m 59s (599 seconds)
3.00 GHz P4: 13m 31s (811 seconds)
1.60 GHz Atom: 19m 49s (1189 seconds)

[mcostalba]

I thought the Atom was more P-I-like than P-III-like. Or is it an out-of-order machine?

No is an in-order machine, but, as for P3, without the deep pipeline that has the P4 and that allows the frequency to scale to very high values.

[Aleks Peshkov]

It is easy to tune a bitboard program either for P4 or Atom. +-25% and comparisons flip flop in magnitude.

[Bill Rogers]

I also own a Acer, Aspire One notbook and although if claims to run at 1.6 gigahertz I have actually come to doubt those figures a lot. It seems to me to running a whold lot slower and sometime in the near future I will try to figure out exactly just how fast it runs in reality.
Bill

[Dan Andersson]

I don't have the Aspire One but the Samsung NC10. I would guess that the Acer though it has pretty abysmal battery life for a netbook uses a similar software controlled running profile schema. I.e. it lets the user select an energy saving/wasting setting that changes clocks and shuts off some hardware.
The default factory setting is usually a slight to heavy throttle on the CPU and aggressive dimming of the screen.

MvH Dan ANdersson

[mclane]

i do also have an atom akoya E1210 with atom cpu.

the idea WHY to buy this machine was the mobility.

e.g. if i would like to watch a new engine, or new engine setting,
but i am on journey, in holidays or not at home, i can take this mobile
netbook eng-eng testing center with me and watch how the new engine /engine-setting plays.

i have arena installed on it, and IMO its a good alternative to my
other athlon 2400+ (1800/2000 mhz) and sempron 3000+ (1800 mhz)AMD machines.

the machine is not wasting energy.
its very silent (so i can let it run over night e.g. when i sleep in a hotel room and don't want to knock it off.or even in the sleeping room at home. e.g. i can watch the engines playing before i go sleeping...), i have it run arround the clock and it is not producing much heat (because it is not using much energy).

Its IMO a perfect mobile machine.

The HDD is big enough.
The ram is enough.
its not that heavy like my notebook. it was cheap. i do have enough stationary PCs. they are fast but loud. also they produce a lot of heat in the summer (in the winter it is NICE to have them producing more heat but in the summer not).

i am doing a tournament on it in the moment and want to find out if i can relate the results with the results on my other machines...

So far the machine has played 184 games and its almost not hot at all.
its even difficult to hear the machine running.

if this works, i will be happily using this machine too all time when i am not at home. on journeys and outside.

i like the idea to sit in nature, and watch onno playing hiarcs,
or naum versus rybka...

i put my old CSTAL 2.03 on it. it did 30.000 NPS )

i know that the atom cpu is not that fast related with others.
e.g. it would IMO not make much sense to login on playchess and try to win against all the other participants who have faster stationary pcs or even normal fast laptops.

but eng-eng testing makes IMO sense.

yesterday my friend Uli visited me. he has bought an Asus soandso with 6 cell Lithium accu good for 5 hours (mine is only a 3 cell good for 2.5 h, but i can buy a bigger 6 cell accu later). we went into the kitchen, got a hot cup of tea and watched our computers play each other.

was much fun. no cables. just the 2 cups of tea , us and the tiny netbooks.

[sje]

When I got my Aspire One (the 25 cm screen model), it was infected with some virus called "Windows XP" that included a boatload of crapware. Fortunately, a clean install of Ubuntu 9.04 later that day got rid of the mess except for a hard-to-remove authenticity sticker on the bottom of the machine.

There are a few issues with hardware support, but the Ubuntu hacker community is making steady progress filling any gaps. Some issues:

1) The 802.11g WiFi works fine with my Apple Airport wireless router with the minor problem of the netbook's WiFi activity LED remaining dark. For some unknown reason the wired Ethernet interface is not supported, at least with the default setup.

2) The power management needs some work as the 160 GB HD appears to spinning always and the CPU seems to keep itself going at full speed, both regardless of user (in)activity.

3) The sound I/O appears to be working, but I haven't tested the camera yet.

4) The LED illuminated screen is nice although it's only 1,024 by 600 resolution with 18 bit color per pixel. The low end Intel integrated vampire video is not fast, but unlike with some previous Ubuntu releases there are no obvious video artifacts like tearing or scan line glitches.

5) The trackpad is a bit too small for my taste and I don't care for its lever button either, so an external mouse is needed for any extensive work.

6) The special function keys (brightness, volume, etc.) seem to work, but there's a noticeable response delay.

7) Some adventurous souls have managed to get Mac OS/X running on this thing.