George Nurser <gnurser@googlemail.com> [2007-01-25 02:05]:

Perhaps compiling python itself with icc might give a useful speedup. Apparently somebody managed this for python 2.3 in 2003: http://mail.python.org/pipermail/c++-sig/2003-October/005824.html

Hello George, I saw that post yesterday, and just got around to trying it. It works. ./configure CC=icc --prefix=/usr/local In addition to commenting out #BASECFLAGS= -OPT:Olimit=0 I added -xT -parallel to the OPT= line for my Core 2 Duo CPU. The usual Make, Make install worked, and pybench now runs in 3.15 seconds vs 4.7 seconds with Python2.5 compiled with gcc. That's a 49% speed increase. http://svn.python.org/projects/external/pybench-2.0/ And, if psyco is used, pybench runs in 1.6 seconds for one iteration and then crashes. Psyco + icc results in a ~300% speed increase. Pybench needs to be updated for 1+ gigaflop systems. http://psyco.sourceforge.net/ -rex -- "I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone. My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone" --Bjorne Stroustrup (originator of C++ programming language)