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Nat!

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Malloc article started

Might as well get something going, so I figured I will start writing the malloc article. Although my iPod has been stolen, with the sources on them, I luckily have a backup copy from last summer. AFAI can remember, I haven't done anything since then so it should be OK.

Started to write a little demo application for the intro chapter. found out that the gcc option -finline-functions seems to have the same or even less effect than a placebo pill. I could get my static inline function to inline when I turned up -O3 from -Os, but specifying or not specifying -finline-functions is a moot anyway with -O3. Curse Stallmann and the FSF and curse Apple. (Though they have little to do with the compiler, there is no guarantee that they didn't muck with it. And if they are innocent, it still hits the right target, he he) No I am too lazy to verify this with Linux (see picture of the previous entry :))

Unfortunately -O3 turned out to be too aggressive and cleverly figured out that my code was a glorified NOP and threw it all away. Took some time to massage the code into being useful enough for the optimizer.

Looked with interest at this PPC 970 article. I don't know how Altivec centered these testings are, as the programs I usually run don't utilize it. So I don't care all that much about AltiVec. But assuming Bryce is not yet AltiVec optimized, that would mean that a single 1.8 Ghz PPC 970 would be on par with a 3 Ghz Pentium IV. Hmm I certainly would hope so... but the relatively low Ghz count on the PPC 970 makes me wonder, if a better architecture can really bridge that big a gap, We will see.

Currently in iTunes Criminals from the album "Viva Emptiness" by Katatonia. I prefer the previous albums at the moment.