In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips CrackerJack <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> Does your CPUburn have any special points when compared to
> the cpu testers discussed at Radifed?
> Like Prime95, Motherboard Monitor's 'Heat Up', HotCPU Tester
> Pro Lite, etc. http://radified.com/Articles/stability_testing.htm
I really haven't had much time to look around. If I had the
time, I'd be releasing `burnRAM` [need win32 port] and `burnP7`
[needs some signals work].
It's very easy to get "100% CPU utilization" according to
the OS. `jmp $` or `while(1);` will do. The OS always has
something to run (not the idle thread), so it thinks it's busy.
If you can't get 100% (MS-Win9*), it's a priority issue.
But this is only around 70% of max power draw. Not all the
chip circuits are kept busy. I've crafted my burn* pgms in
assembly (natch!) to try to keep as much busy as possible.
Without any constraint of actually doing useful work!
Some programs can keep the CPU 100% runnable but really not
be compute-limited. Doing useful work is a bit of a limit.
I stuff useless instructions in. SETI@home was notorious for
very odd times for work unit completion (memory fetch bound).
I _don't_ claim my pgms are the hottest possible. I'm sure
that Intel and AMD use better ones as part of their CPU
manufacturing testing. But those are deep dark secrets.
Mine is Open Source.
-- Robert author `cpuburn`
http://pages.sbcglobal.net/redelm
(email invalid, changed ISP -- you figure it out)