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From: Geoff Bull <gbull@acenet.com.au>
Subject: Re: Fortran or Ada?
Date: 1998/10/02
Date: 1998-10-02T00:00:00+00:00	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <36142547.FA1CD732@acenet.com.au> (raw)
In-Reply-To: 19980928.184428.604@yktvmv.watson.ibm.com



jbs@yktvmv.watson.ibm.com wrote:

> Ada is of course
> notoriously inefficient.

I was recently subject to a claim that Java optimistation was so good, it was now
half as fast as
Fortran at numerics, and many times faster than C, C++.
I was provoked when I heard a number of people discussing how great it was
that "Java's performance problem has now been solved"

Unfortunately I didn't have access to a Fortran compiler, but decided to test this
claim against
Ada & C (using gnat3.10p with gcc2.7.2) on matrix multiplication.
For equivalent C and Ada, I found NO difference in performance, (with Ada
constraint checking ON)
and looking at the generated code it was difficult to understand how Fortran could
be faster.
For real arithmetic, Java achieved half the speed of C / Ada (which is pretty good,
really).
With the complex arithmetic the sory was different:

Ada was same speed as C if written the same way
(and presumably I could have written Java that was half as fast).

but if complex types from the Ada library were used, 30% performance hit occured
due to creation of intermediate objects

Java execution time was an order of magnitude slower due to it use of the
heap for Complex objects.

I am willing to believe Fortran would have been faster than Ada (when using
abstractio)
for complex arithmetic because of the compiler's in built support for that type.
However I still don't see why it would have been faster than the C, or the C-style
Ada.


I didn't test Fortran - so what is my point?
Comments like the above, while probably intended to inflame the likes of me,
are often just accepted without question.

Everybody seems to just accept Fortran is such a fantastic numerics language
, especially when it comes to performance.
Is it really?







  parent reply	other threads:[~1998-10-02  0:00 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 96+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
     [not found] <36068E73.F0398C54@meca.polymtl.ca>
1998-09-22  0:00 ` Fortran or Ada? Gisle S{lensminde
1998-09-22  0:00   ` Jeff Templon
1998-09-22  0:00     ` dewarr
1998-09-23  0:00       ` Jeff Templon
1998-09-23  0:00         ` Corey Minyard
1998-09-24  0:00           ` Joel Seidman
1998-09-24  0:00           ` Craig Burley
1998-09-25  0:00             ` dewarr
1998-09-25  0:00               ` Jonathan Guthrie
1998-09-26  0:00               ` Craig Burley
1998-09-26  0:00                 ` dewarr
1998-09-26  0:00                   ` Robert B. Love 
1998-09-26  0:00                   ` Craig Burley
1998-09-24  0:00         ` Marc A. Criley
1998-09-24  0:00           ` dewarr
1998-09-24  0:00             ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-09-24  0:00               ` William Clodius
1998-09-25  0:00                 ` dewarr
1998-09-25  0:00               ` dewarr
1998-09-25  0:00                 ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-09-25  0:00                   ` dewarr
1998-09-25  0:00             ` jbs
1998-09-26  0:00               ` dewarr
1998-09-28  0:00                 ` jbs
1998-09-29  0:00                   ` Dean F. Sutherland
1998-09-29  0:00                   ` Gautier.DeMontmollin
1998-09-29  0:00                   ` Dean F. Sutherland
1998-09-29  0:00                   ` William B. Clodius
1998-09-30  0:00                     ` jbs
1998-09-30  0:00                       ` William Clodius
1998-09-30  0:00                       ` dewarr
1998-09-30  0:00                         ` jbs
1998-09-30  0:00                           ` William Clodius
1998-10-03  0:00                       ` Niklas Holsti
1998-10-03  0:00                         ` Toon Moene
1998-10-03  0:00                           ` Niklas Holsti
1998-10-03  0:00                             ` Toon Moene
1998-10-04  0:00                               ` Niklas Holsti
1998-10-05  0:00                                 ` Michel OLAGNON
1998-10-05  0:00                                   ` Ian St. John
1998-10-05  0:00                                     ` dewarr
1998-10-05  0:00                                       ` Ian St. John
1998-10-06  0:00                                         ` dewarr
1998-10-06  0:00                                           ` Ian St. John
1998-10-08  0:00                                             ` Offtopic Airport Diversion (Was: Fortran or Ada?) Harold Stevens ** PLEASE SEE SIG **
1998-10-08  0:00                                               ` Ian St. John
1998-10-08  0:00                                             ` Fortran or Ada? Gary L. Scott
1998-10-06  0:00                                           ` Toon Moene
1998-10-06  0:00                                             ` Jonathan Guthrie
1998-10-06  0:00                                           ` James Giles
1998-10-06  0:00                                             ` Mark A Biggar
1998-10-06  0:00                                               ` James Giles
1998-10-07  0:00                                                 ` dewarr
1998-10-07  0:00                                             ` dewarr
1998-10-05  0:00                                     ` Richard D Riehle
1998-10-05  0:00                                       ` dewarr
1998-10-06  0:00                                     ` Michel OLAGNON
1998-10-07  0:00                                       ` Ian St. John
1998-09-29  0:00                   ` Dean F. Sutherland
1998-10-02  0:00                   ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-10-02  0:00                     ` jbs
1998-10-02  0:00                       ` William Clodius
1998-10-03  0:00                         ` jbs
1998-10-03  0:00                           ` Larry Elmore
1998-10-06  0:00                           ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-10-06  0:00                             ` Pat Rogers
1998-10-02  0:00                   ` Geoff Bull [this message]
1998-09-24  0:00           ` Jeff Templon
1998-09-25  0:00             ` dewarr
1998-09-25  0:00             ` Dale Stanbrough
1998-09-30  0:00               ` Daniel Barker
1998-09-30  0:00                 ` Lawrence Kirby
1998-10-01  0:00                   ` Aaron Crane
1998-10-02  0:00                 ` Fortran or Ada or gobbledygook? Wes Groleau
1998-10-05  0:00                 ` Fortran or Ada? Terry Devine
     [not found]           ` <6udre0$ha1$1@nnrp1.dejane <6utg60$h6l$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com>
1998-10-01  0:00             ` robin_v
1998-09-22  0:00     ` Corey Minyard
1998-09-22  0:00     ` Larry Kilgallen
1998-09-22  0:00     ` Rakesh Malhotra
1998-09-23  0:00     ` Frank Ecke
1998-09-23  0:00   ` bglbv
1998-09-23  0:00     ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-09-24  0:00       ` Richard D Riehle
1998-09-23  0:00 Marin David Condic, 561.796.8997, M/S 731-96
1998-09-23  0:00 ` Gisle S{lensminde
1998-09-24  0:00   ` John McCabe
1998-09-24  0:00     ` Gisle S{lensminde
1998-09-24  0:00     ` Dean F. Sutherland
1998-09-24  0:00 ` Samuel T. Harris
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
1998-09-23  0:00 Marin David Condic, 561.796.8997, M/S 731-96
1998-09-24  0:00 Walt Brainerd
1998-09-25  0:00 ` dewarr
1998-09-25  0:00 ` Robert I. Eachus
1998-10-05  0:00 robin
1998-10-05  0:00 Condic, Marin D.
1998-10-05  0:00 Robert I. Eachus
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