Large integers

Bijan Parsia bparsia at email.unc.edu
Thu Aug 3 14:04:59 UTC 2000


On Thu, 3 Aug 2000, Peter Novak wrote:

> Hi Wouter,
> Hmmm... I just tried to execute your line and I have the result
immediately.
> I am running on Squeak 2.9a.

Two things can make a huge difference:
	1) Whether you're running with the large integer plugin (the
latest VMs (i.e., >=2.8) have this built in) or not. Don't even think
about it without the plugin (the pure Smalltalk code is, itself, not very
speed optimized).
	2) Whether you hit a gc. When I popped the example into a long
running image it did a full gc first (this sometimes happens, I find, if I
try an example after letting an image "sit" for a long time).

So, here's a micro-micro-benchmark:
	Smalltalk garbageCollect.
	Time millisecondsToRun:[(855 raisedTo: 2753) \\ 3233] 

On the same machine (300mhz pentium type):
	2.7ish VM:	26352
 	2.8ish VM:	  184

Clearly this says nothing about runs of calculations in a specific app, 
but should give a feel for how things roll.

I recommend looking at IntegerArray style classes as well.

Cheers,
Bijan Parsia.

P.S. Peter, sorry for sending it to you twice!





More information about the Squeak-dev mailing list