Some comments below.
At 07:02 PM 3/1/2006, Eric Wachsmann - FlexRadio wrote:
Traditionally (and by this, I mean in testing done over a year ago), the Pentium 4 will outperform the Athlon processors in real-time applications such as the PowerSDR software.
I think this is a tough test to do unless mucho care is taken to make sure the machines are truly equivalent in terms of memory speed, bus speed, video cards etc. These days the Athlon 64's seems to be getting more perf on most of the benchmarks I've seen. Not that it matters all that much, any processor one can buy new today should be good enough to do the job - although my tendency would be to go with the Athlon/Pentium instead of Celeron/(AMD's low end chip that I forget the name of) -- the lower end processors are a bit light on cache for my test. Also make sure to run fftw_wisdom on your setup so it can choose the optimal FFT code for your setup.
<..... > 3. Try adjusting the PowerSDR process priority. The selection is in the Setup Form -> General Tab -> Options Sub Tab. Try to avoid using RealTime, but Above Normal and Highest are fair game (RealTime should not be used without risk of random crashes/lock ups).
Ahh -- live dangerously if you have to. I've been running RealTime for a while now on my 3 year old (hmmm ... overdue for a new SDR computer I thinK) Athlon XP/Win 2k box and have not noticed any issues with lock ups and the like, and it really does help with the drop outs and the like. YMMV.
Have fun. Cheers, Bill (kd5tfd)
