[Python-Dev] Python Benchmarks

Fri Jun 2 20:52:55 CEST 2006

M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
> I just had an idea: if we could get each test to run
> inside a single time slice assigned by the OS scheduler,
> then we could benefit from the better resolution of the
> hardware timers while still keeping the noise to a
> minimum.
>> I suppose this could be achieved by:
>> * making sure that each tests needs less than 10ms to run

iirc, very recent linux kernels have a 1 millisecond tick. so does 
alphas, and probably some other platforms.
> * calling time.sleep(0) after each test run

so some higher priority process can get a chance to run, and spend 9.5 
milliseconds shuffling data to a slow I/O device before blocking? ;-)
I'm not sure this problem can be solved, really, at least not as long as 
you're constrained to portable API:s.
(talking of which, if someone has some time and a linux box to spare, 
and wants to do some serious hacking on precision benchmarks, using
 http://user.it.uu.se/~mikpe/linux/perfctr/2.6/
to play with the TSC might be somewhat interesting.)
</F>