[K12OSN] TuxMath test on 8 core machine with teamed NICs 16GB RAM

[James P. Kinney III]

On Thu, 2007-12-06 at 10:58 -0500, Jim Kronebusch wrote:
> On Thu, 06 Dec 2007 09:53:52 -0500, James P. Kinney III wrote
> > Bad stats, Jim. That's not good news as everyone I see whose seen
> > tuxmath goes ape over it (especially the kids).
> > 
> > The version that ships with K12LTSP is a bazillion years old (the
> > abandoned version). The new version is 1.5.8 (tux hides in igloos and
> > cities are not destroyed, includes "lessons" and does negative
> > numbers!).
> > 
> > The code is essentially unchanged at the base level (SDL is an easy
> > cross platform toolset but is very inefficient). I don't have access to
> > a large client count at the moment but I'll check the new version vs.
> > the old version on Opteron systems ASAP.
> > 
> > I'm really floored that the hardware you threw at this test choked so
> > badly. I suspect that the different memory management processes between
> > Opteron and Xeon will show up here (my testing last year showed an
> > average performance boost of 30+% in thin client speed between Opteron
> > and Xeon - Simultaneous launch of 24 OOo instances took 65 seconds on
> > Xeons and 42 seconds with freshly booted servers and client. Speed up
> > was even more dramatic with cached copy).
> 
> I did not even think about the TuxMath version, here is the output of the Edubuntu
> repository:

Yep, an older version. Try the development repo here:
http://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31080

I compiles the new 1.5.8 on my Opteron test machine and it's quite
speedy (note: one user - me). Code still has dead loops in it to
deliberately slow it down and they are hard coded and not based on cpu
speed or timed loops. so the game is faster on a fast machine and slower
on a slow machine with both being equally loaded/unloaded.

> 
> Package: tuxmath
> Priority: optional
> Section: games
> Installed-Size: 2052
> Maintainer: Ubuntu Core Developers <ubuntu-devel-discuss at lists.ubuntu.com>
> Original-Maintainer: Holger Levsen <debian at layer-acht.org>
> Architecture: i386
> Version: 1.0.1-1build1
> Depends: libc6 (>= 2.5-0ubuntu1), libsdl-image1.2 (>= 1.2.5), libsdl-mixer1.2 (>=
> 1.2.6), libsdl1.2debian (>= 1.2.10-1)
> Filename: pool/main/t/tuxmath/tuxmath_1.0.1-1build1_i386.deb
> Size: 1420908
> MD5sum: 8476a921bca0b36584f1b823d849dee3
> SHA1: 738c9b966e32350564b3d776fb9117688afef6e8
> SHA256: 793faa95d45091a22477ff930cdc68723983fb94a06d3a9d1beebbbcf09efb60
> Description: math game for kids with Tux
>  "Tux, of Math Command" ("TuxMath," for short) is an
>  educational arcade game starring Tux, the Linux mascot!
>  Based on the classic arcade game "Missile Command," Tux
>  must defend his cities. In this case, though, he must do
>  it by solving math problems.
> Bugs: mailto:ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com
> Origin: Ubuntu
> Task: edubuntu-live
> 
> So it appears the version is 1.0.1-1build1?  I'm guessing that is fairly old.  Maybe
> I'll download the new version and give it a try.  
> 
> As far as memory usage, I don't see any problems with concurrent Firefox and OpenOffice
> and 75 users, and RAM usage with those users and TuxMath never get above 4GB.  With
> other things we can get to 6GB usage and no slow downs at all.  I really don't think
> this is a RAM or memory problem, but the code hogging CPU usage.  However I will state
> I'm likely not educated enough to make an accurate assessment, but the data I found
> seems to lean that direction.
> 
> Jim
> 
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-- 
James P. Kinney III          
CEO & Director of Engineering 
Local Net Solutions,LLC        
770-493-8244                    
http://www.localnetsolutions.com

GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics)
<jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
Fingerprint = 3C9E 6366 54FC A3FE BA4D 0659 6190 ADC3 829C 6CA7
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