multiprocessing vs thread performance

[mk]

Jarkko Torppa wrote:

> On the PEP371 it says "All benchmarks were run using the following:
> Python 2.5.2 compiled on Gentoo Linux (kernel 2.6.18.6)"

Right... I overlooked that. My tests I quoted above were done on SLES 
10, kernel 2.6.5.

> With python2.5 and pyProcessing-0.52
> 
> iTaulu:src torppa$ python2.5 run_benchmarks.py empty_func.py
> Importing empty_func
> Starting tests ...
> non_threaded (1 iters)  0.000003 seconds
> threaded (1 threads)    0.000143 seconds
> processes (1 procs)     0.002794 seconds
> 
> non_threaded (2 iters)  0.000004 seconds
> threaded (2 threads)    0.000277 seconds
> processes (2 procs)     0.004046 seconds
> 
> non_threaded (4 iters)  0.000005 seconds
> threaded (4 threads)    0.000598 seconds
> processes (4 procs)     0.007816 seconds
> 
> non_threaded (8 iters)  0.000008 seconds
> threaded (8 threads)    0.001173 seconds
> processes (8 procs)     0.015504 seconds

There's smth wrong with numbers posted in PEP. This is what I got on 
4-socket Xeon (+ HT) with Python 2.6.1 on Debian (Etch), with kernel 
upgraded to 2.6.22.14:


non_threaded (1 iters)  0.000004 seconds
threaded (1 threads)    0.000159 seconds
processes (1 procs)     0.001067 seconds

non_threaded (2 iters)  0.000005 seconds
threaded (2 threads)    0.000301 seconds
processes (2 procs)     0.001754 seconds

non_threaded (4 iters)  0.000006 seconds
threaded (4 threads)    0.000581 seconds
processes (4 procs)     0.003906 seconds

non_threaded (8 iters)  0.000009 seconds
threaded (8 threads)    0.001148 seconds
processes (8 procs)     0.008178 seconds