My $0.02 worth on the AMD vs. Intel processor debate. I have not compared my AMD directly to a Pentium IV dual core, but I am using an AMD Athlon 64 2X Dual Core 4400+ (running @ 2.2 GHz - L1 cache 128KB/cpu. L2 cache - 1MB/cpu (not shared), FSB 200Mhz, SSE3) on an Asus MB with 1 GB of RAM, and an AGP 8X NVIDIA GeForce 6200 video controller. I chose AMD over a Pentium because it utilizes a crossbar switch for inter-core communication and the on-chip integrated memory controller rather than the front-side bus architecture to relay both memory and I/O traffic from the cores to the memory controller.
In RX mode (v1.4.5p12) with Firefox, Citrix client, VCOM and VAC 3.11 running using the Delta 44 (PCI), my average processor utilization ranges from (a whopping) 2.1% to 7.8% (avg = 4.2%) I have seen it as low as 0.8% with nothing else running. In RX mode (v1.4.5p12) with Firefox, Citrix client, VCOM and VAC 3.11 running using the FireBox (Firewire), my average processor utilization ranges from 14.5% to 23.8% (avg = 17.5%) Both configurations were run on Win2003 (32-bit) and consume about 262 MB RAM. At these loads, I think you could run several instances of PowerSDR if you had the parallel ports and sound cards (and of course the DSR-1000s) at your disposal. Processing power is getting cheaper. And like Duane said, if I run out of CPU horsepower, I'll drop in a faster processor. Personally, the new features I am looking forward to are 96000 Hz sampling rates, GUI "skins", Better DDS spur elimination routines, splitting the DSP and GUI functions (running on multiple threads), multiple receivers (in the passband), native digital voice modes, and any wiz bang audio processing goodies (VST plug-in support maybe) Eric and the group can think of. I throw down the gauntlet and challenge you to make my processor weep :-) -Tim --- Tim Ellison ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] ) Integrated Technical Services ( http://www.itsco.com ) -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Duane - N9DG Sent: Friday, February 03, 2006 10:23 PM To: 'FlexRadio Mailing List' Subject: Re: [Flexradio] Repost - Multiple SDRS one CPU Comments in line below: --- Mike King - KM0T <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Eric and all, thanks for the comments. I think as > discussed below, if your > ultimate setup is using two Delta44 cards...(as I would > like to have) the > control panel handling two cards...I remember seeing that > it could handle 4 > devices. I guess one would not have to install the > software again for the Delta 44! I'm still rooting for official company (and software) support for the Audiophile 192 running at its 80kHz sampling bandwidth here :)... (I *really* want that 160kHz panadapter). As I recall the two 192's showed up separately in both the M-Audio control panel and in PowerSDR such that you could select the one you wanted to use. > If anyone installs two D44 cards and has two SDRs going, > please post the > results. I dont have a spare card right now to try. I did have two 192's installed at one point but never actually tried running two sessions of PowerSDR with them. May just have to try that this weekend. > PS - Duane, have you benched the AMD processor with > PowerSDR against an > Intel P4 3.4 650 processor or similar? Is your AMD the > dual core unit? I > would think even the new Intel dual core processors would > be excellent at > this, as then there are 4 virtual processors. (Hyperthread > X2) I have not done any benchmarking against anything else. It is a plain Jane AMD Athlon XP 3000+ and is not dual core. This AMD based machine has 1MB of RAM and is definitely not near the top for performance heap by today's standards, - even when I bought it wasn't. I always buy based on the best horsepower/$ point on the pricing curve. Even so in recent (last 8 month or so) versions of PowerSDR it has only been running at <15% CPU time total (driving it with VNC only bumps up the CPU usage a few percentage points. The RAM usage is very modest as well. Based on these observations and I my gut instinct tells me that running two sessions of PowerSDR the machine will not be CPU or RAM limited. Until of course that 160 kHz panadapter version comes out :)... If I don't have the horsepower at that point then I'll just buy more CPU horsepower ;) - after all it's the least expensive part of this radio. Duane N9DG __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://mail.flex-radio.biz/pipermail/flexradio_flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com
