[plt-scheme] What is good PC for PLT?

At Thu, 16 Mar 2006 19:57:23 +0100 (CET), kazimir at chem.pmf.hr wrote:
> I'll maybe spend next few years using PLT for some graph processing,
> automated theorem proving and similar purposes, and I consider buying new
> PCs for home and office these days.
> 
> What's the best combination of processor and OS and RAM for PLT?
> 
> Intel or AMD x86 or Opteron? Linux or Win? Is there any benefit of double
> core for PLT programs? How much RAM is PLT capable of using, 4GB or more
> or less? Is some combination known to be significantly faster or more
> reliable?

Holding processor speed constant, I don't think there's much difference
among 32-bit processors or OSes.

I don't know exactly how 32-bit versus 64-bit mode affects PLT Scheme
performance, but the new JIT compiler works for 32-bit systems, only.
That will change when I have regular access to a 64-bit system.

PLT Scheme can use more than 4GB on a 64-bit system (but only 4GB on a
32-bit system, of course).

PLT Scheme currently can't take much advantage of multiple processors,
except to the extent that the OS does automatically (e.g., to serve
non-blocking I/O requests on the other processor for MzScheme). This is
something that we'll likely work on, though, over the new few years.

Matthew