A Comparison of Machine Organizations by Their Performance of the Iterative Solution of Linear Equations

ABSTRACT

It is shown that for a given problem different machine organizations will vary in time of solution over a nine-fold range. This holds even if it is assumed that the machines used the same arithmetic section and the same memory. The comparison is made on the basis of a typical problem—in this case the Kaczmarz iteration. An efficiency number is developed giving the relative solution time required by each organization. When the efficiency number of a single address machine is taken to be 1.0, the following numbers are obtained: four address machine, 1.25; single address machine with index registers, 2.5; complex organization, 9.

REFERENCES

• 1: G. ESTRIN, Math Tables Aids Comp. 7 (April 1953)
• 2: E. BODEWIG, Matrzx Calculus, North Holland Publishing Co , Amsterdam, Interscience, New York (1956)
• 3: M I T. Servomechanisms Laboratory, Project Whirlwind, Engineering notes, E-107 (1948).
• 4: Numerical Analysis Research, UCLA, Manual of the SWAC computing system (revised to 1956)
• 5: I.B M., 709 Manual of Operation (1958)
• 6: University of Illinois Digital Computer Laboratory, On the design of a very high speed computer, Report No 80 (1957).

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  B. Hardware
  B.8 Performance and Reliability

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.0 GENERAL
      Subjects: Modeling of computer architecture
  C.4 PERFORMANCE OF SYSTEMS
      Subjects: Performance attributes

General Terms:
Experimentation, Measurement, Performance