DAT Test 2: Extracting a single large file from DAT (DDS1 vs. DDS3)

SGI Performance Comparisons

Extracting a single large file from DAT (DDS1 vs. DDS3)

Last Change: 08/May/2008

In this test, I timed how long the various systems took to extract the main 179685K (175.5MB) Quake2 pak0.pak data file from DAT. All tests were performed using IRIX 6.5. Data rates are in K/sec. The command sequence used to run the test, which was entered in a raw xterm, was:

   timex tar xv

Table 24 shows the results for extracting the pak0.pak file. The DDS1 column is not complete, mainly because I don't now have a DDS1 to run tests with.

                        DDS1 Python      DDS1 Python      DDS3 Sony
                       25601-XXX2.75    28388-XXX5.AC      SDT9000
                        time / rate      time / rate     time / rate

O2 R5200SC 300MHz 1MB:                   7:59 / 375
O2 R5000SC/200:                                          1:54 / 1576
Indigo2 R4400SC/250:   17:19 /  173                      1:53 / 1590
Indy R4400SC/200:                                        1:55 / 1563
Indy R4600PC/133:                                        3:56 /  761
Indy R4600PC/100:                                        3:47 /  792

   Table 23: DDS1 vs. DDS3 DAT performance for
             extracting a large file from DAT.

Again, the slower CPUs cannot exploit a fast DAT drive.

And as with DAT TEST 1, the top-three DDS3 test times are too similar to judge any performance differences which may exist between the systems, but there is another possibility: the data is being transferred at close to the maximum possible speed of the DDS3 drive. It's difficult to say. I will rerun the tests at a later date using a much larger file.