Crippling the Competition?

[nognlite]

I know that questions about why Intel was better at media encoding have already been posted, and discussed at great length, however having come across this article: <b><A HREF="http://www.swallowtail.org/naughty-intel.html" target="_new">http://www.swallowtail.org/naughty-intel.html</A></b> originally posted on AmdZone on 12 July 05 (<b><A HREF="http://www.amdzone.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=3319" target="_new">http://www.amdzone.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=3319</A></b>), I have some questions.

First, I question the validity. As I am not a programmer, how accurate are these statements. Second, how many small time programs such as the DivX encoder are compiled with such a program and third, how many of these programs are used for benchmarking.

Answers to these question might reveal a troubling senario and question the credaibility of such experiments as the recent stress test that matched AMD vs Intel in encoding. It would be very disturbing to verifiy that this is truly happening and on the other hand would be refreshing to see if correction of this problem would reveal a new outcome in the AMD vs Intel comparison/competition.

Let me have it!!

<i>"One's first step in wisdom is to question everything - and one's last is to come to terms with everything"
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (German physics professor 1742 - 1799)</i>

 

[P4Man]

>First, I question the validity.

Its true.

>Second, how many small time programs such as the DivX encoder
> are compiled with such a program

ICC (intels compiler) is not frequently used for large/complex commercial applications. By far the most used compiler is MSVC (Microsoft) and GCC (especially on Linux, but also on windows). ICC is a distant third.

>third, how many of these programs are used for >benchmarking.

ICC tends to generate the fastest code (especially on intel hardware as explained in the article), so for small but very cpu intensive apps, such as encoders, rendering engines and the like, ICC is quite likely more popular than for any other category of software. And indeed, many of those apps are also used for benchmarking. Of course that doesnt change the reality when you run those apps, and they are compiled with ICC.

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my wife. =