Anybody Still Using a Pentium 3?
October 17, 2009 · Filed Under MeshCAM Development
I’m going to assume that few users are still using anything older than a Pentium 4/Celeron ( which were released in 2000) and make a few changes to MeshCAM. Starting with the P4, Intel/AMD made the SSE2 instructions available. Enabling them in Visual Studio gives MeshCAM a 6% boost in my test case without doing anything else. I expect that I can do better if I make changes to target these new instructions more explicitly.
Between this and some other changes MeshCAM is running about 15-20% faster than the last release.
UPDATE: I just made another small change and it’s now about 44% faster in my benchmark.
Comments
7 Responses to “Anybody Still Using a Pentium 3?”
Robert, given the fact that fast P4-based machines are available on eBay for less than $100, I think you are very safe in your optimizations.
Hey don’t be to sure, I’m sure I’ve got a 486 around here somewere
Steve
How about I make the requirement a 486 with at least 4 gigs of memory?
-Robert
Just a heads up. My router is actually running – controlled by PIII.
Will MeshCAM still run on it, or will it give an error, or worse?? Not a big deal, though, because it can pull files from my desk PC in the house.
Hey, if we’re playing one-downsmanship, my CNC engraver is controlled by a converted i-appliance running an AMD K6-III. But I don’t generate gcode on that machine–that’s what the mighty Pentium Prescott in my desktop is for…
Randy
And I still write DOS batch files.
I spent my day writing code for a Zone 1 rated flashlight with a CPU with only 1k of memory. I win.
Gerry-
I think it would give a warning and not run but I don’t have an old enough machine to try it. I’ll probably do one build upon release without SSE for those who must use an old machine. I probably won’t keep that one as up-to-date though.
-Robert