[net.ai] Lisp comparison -- benchmarks

biep@klipper.UUCP (J. A. "Biep" Durieux) (10/28/85)

Among the many reactions I received upon my request for Lisp machine
comparisons, there was a nice list of testresults by Ralph P. Sobek
( mcvax!inria!lasso!ralph ). Because many people might be interested
in those results, I post them for him to net.ai.
He ran some tests on a variety of LISP workstations while he was at 
IJCAI-85, in Los Angeles.  Here are the results;

Fibonacci comparisons(1):
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lisp System/Computer		Interpreted	Compiled	Notes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Xerox 1132 (Dorado)		 10.9 sec.	0.145 sec.	(2)
Symbolics 3640			 10.5		0.158
Lisp/VM (IBM 4381)		 12.8		0.45
   "         "					0.15		(3)
Interlisp 370 (IBM 3083)	  1.502		0.189
Xerox 1185/1186			 42.03		0.375		(2)
Xerox 1108 (Dandelion)		 41.451		0.405
Hewlett Packard 68020 (Common L) 18.3		< 1.		(4),(5)
LMI/Zetalisp-Plus		 92.78		0.53
Macintosh/Experlisp		  --		0.53		(6)
Sun-2 (Franz lisp)		 28.51            -		(4)
Sun-2 (Lucid Common Lisp)	 28.00		0.58
Texas Instruments Explorer	 1 min.		< 1.		(4)
Micro-Vax 2 (Vax Lisp) VMS	181.53		2.54
----------------
(1)	Definition of Fibonacci used:

	(lambda (n)
		(cond ((eq n 1)
			1)
		      ((eq n 2)
			1)
		      (t (iplus (fib (sub1 n))
				(fib (idifference n 2))))))

	Depending on the different versions of lisp, plus had to be used for
	iplus, etc. [I suppose, however he did not mention it, that he ran
	(fib 20) -- Biep]

(2)	Other definitions of Fiboacci can exist: a) a two-branch 'cond' with
	an 'or', or b) a selectq definition.  The Xerox compiler generates
	equivalent code for all 3 definitions.

(3)	with fixed number declaration.

(4)	Used stop watch.

(5)	Has optimizing compiler which 4 levels of speed-up:
	none	 8.0  times over interpreted
	  1	11.0
	  2	16.8
	  3	23.7

(6)	only compiled.  Has incremental compiler.

-- 
							  Biep.
	{seismo|decvax|philabs|garfield|okstate}!mcvax!vu44!biep

Nous aurions souvent honte de nos plus belles actions
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