The primary goal of the Linpack benchmark is to measure Gigaflops of PCs or PC clusters. It has been used for Super-Computers, but also desktop machines. The software solves mathematical problem - arbitrary large set of linear equations, and displays the rate of solving, measured in Gigaflops (Floating Point Operations per Second).
It is very efficient at using multi-core processors. Here is a screen-shot of my conky during the test run:
[img]http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/117/15978852cs4.gif[/img]
You can download it from Intel's page: Linpack download link.
Installation is trivial:
$ cd Downloads
$ tar zxvf l_lpk_p_10.1.0.002.tgzBefore you run it, you need to know how much physical memory you have and enter the appropriate values into the software for it's problem sizes and leading dimensions variables. These tell it how much memory to use.
Here is a rough guide:
[b]1 gig of physical memory = 7000 2 gig of physical memory = 13700 4 gig of physical memory = 20000 8 gig of physical memory = 30000[/b]
If you're running the amd64 LINUX, use the 'xlinpack_xeon64' executable. If you're running the standard i686 or below LINUX, use the 'xlinpack_xeon32' executable.
$ cd linpack_10.1.0/benchmarks/linpack/
$ ./xlinpack_xeon64Now you'll see:
Input data or print help ? Type [data]/help :Simply hit the <ENTER> key and enter the value you found from the table above. My system has 4 gigs, so I'll use '20000' for the first two questions, and '4' for the last two questions.
Input data or print help ? Type [data]/help :
Number of equations to solve (problem size): 20000
Leading dimension of array: 20000
Number of trials to run: 4
Data alignment value (in Kbytes): 4
Current date/time: Sun Dec 14 19:00:27 2008
CPU frequency: 3.400 GHz
Number of CPUs: 4
Number of threads: 4
Parameters are set to:
Number of tests : 1
Number of equations to solve (problem size) : 20000
Leading dimension of array : 20000
Number of trials to run : 4
Data alignment value (in Kbytes) : 4
Maximum memory requested that can be used = 3200404096, at the size = 20000
============= Timing linear equation system solver =================
Size LDA Align. Time(s) GFlops Residual Residual(norm)
20000 20000 4 111.673 47.7658 4.546476e-10 4.024627e-02
20000 20000 4 111.306 47.9233 4.546476e-10 4.024627e-02
20000 20000 4 111.339 47.9091 4.546476e-10 4.024627e-02
20000 20000 4 111.733 47.7400 4.546476e-10 4.024627e-02
Performance Summary (GFlops)
Size LDA Align. Average Maximal
20000 20000 4 47.8345 47.9233
End of testsMy CPU is an X3360 @ 8.5x400=3.40 GHz by the way.
Please post your results!