Re: Performance

In article <F34nDg8UjG7DWXMv0Hc00003b4f@hotmail.com>,
Sandro Magi <naasking@hotmail.com> wrote:
>I was testing out VSTa and comparing it to my Linux installation and ran a
>brief subjective test. I tried untarring and gunzipping the vsta_src.tz file
>and noticed a huge speed difference. VSTa performed at least 3-4 times
>slower than Linux.

There are a few reasons for this, some good, some not.

Linux gets a lot of its superior subjective performance from the fact
that it caches disk writes so aggressively. VSTa, on the other hand, always
tries to keep the disk in sync. There are upsides and downsides to both
approaches; Linux's method feels faster but there's more risk of data loss
in the case of a power failure.

The other big reason is that the FAT filesystem is an extremely simple
filesystem and is not as efficient as the ext2 filesystem that Linux uses.
VSTa supports another filesystem called 'vstafs', which is a more modern
design and gives better performance.

Another thing you might try is passing a larger number in the -B switch to
the "wd" server... this makes it use a larger buffer, if you've got some
memory to spare.

>Also, untarring and gunzipping the vsta_src.tz file never finishes. It
>always prematurely exits with a 'broken pipe' error.

Are you certain that it exits prematurely? i.e., have you verified that
some files aren't being extracted. Strictly speaking, the broken pipe
condition may not be an error.... for example, if you're piping the
output from gunzip as input to tar, then tar only knows when to stop
working when an EOF comes over the pipe.

--Mirian
Received on Mon Dec 25 07:50:41 2000