linuxaudio.org

On 05/30/2012 09:21 AM, Sciss wrote:

quoted text
> thanks for the link and the info. so you think atom processors are

> fine enough? the latency actually doesn't matter in my case. i'm more

> worried that i'm going to through a lot of CPU heavy stuff on it, as

> this will run experimental software I wrote myself (and I won't have

> any time for performance tuning of the software itself).

I have an Atom N450 netbook.  In practical terms, its limits for a

single task are:
   * Time-stretching a clip in realtime to 50% to original

     time span.
   * A set with 4-5 monophonic synths, and 4-5 pure audio

     tracks.
   * All of the Renoise sample programs
   * Most anything you can throw at Mixxx.
While it has very good audio performance -- it has significantly less

headroom than a Core2 or i-series processor (feels like a factor of 2 or 4).
Other non-audio tasks:
   * Large compiles take 4-6x longer (e.g. kernel, Qt)
   * Number crunching tasks are very slow.  It's like the

     floating point stuff is driving drunk.
   * Processor has a high performance hit for inefficient

     memory access (compared to Core2, i-series).
   * Processor doesn't benefit as much from SIMD (SSE)

     optimizations.  E.g. you're lucky to get a 2x performance

     boost using SIMD instructions... whereas a Core2 or i-series

     will see at least a 2x performance boost.
   * Most Atom devices have only 1GB RAM (2GB if you're lucky).

     I've not seen an Atom device with more then 2GB.
Finally, all this experience is in 32-bit mode.  I've been running in

64-bit mode recently, but haven't done much audio with it.  Overall, it

feels about the same.
-gabriel

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