A Look at Linux 2.6 Performance

By Moshe Bar

September 29, 2003

(A Look at Linux 2.6 Performance :  Page 1 of 1 )

Software is an area where improvements are always possible, and kernel hackers are forever looking for new algorithms, shortcuts, streamlinings, and optimizations. Additionally, new technologies (such as HyperThreading) can provide new performance gains, and the kernel has to adapt to take advantage of them. This is why, over the last couple of years, I've analyzed Linux performance by comparing current releases both to previous versions and to competing operating systems (like FreeBSD).

Linux 2.6 is nearing the final release, and the adventurous and wild-at-heart can download the release candidates from http://www.kernel.org/. It's easy to upgrade to the new kernel series; in most cases upgrading to the new binutils, psutils, and netutils is enough (along with the new kernel, obviously). Once you're familiar with the new kernel configuration and building tools, you'll have your new kernel up fast.

I built my 2.6 kernels on top of a Debian Woody 3.0 virgin installation, then proceeded to upgrade the various core components—gcc compiler, build tools, networking tools, and the like. When I timed the upgrade from a clean Woody 3.0 to a working 2.6-based kernel, it took approximately 45 minutes to have the system ready, including the time spent to download various components and compile the kernel.

Since we all know how fast/slow today's modern kernels are, I ran the benchmark against the same Debian Woody 3.0 installation (on a second computer) with kernel 2.4.21 without any additional "after market" patches (that is, as released by 2.4 maintainer Marcello Tosatti). To add some spice to this benchmark, I also obtained a FreeBSD 5.0 distro and installed it on a third system.

The Benchmarking Environment

The three servers—one for kernel 2.6rc2, one for 2.4.21, and another for FreeBSD 5.0—were all Dell 2650 1U servers with dual 2400 Mhz Xeon CPUs, 2 GB RAM, two Intel Gigabit NICs, and two 60 GB SCSI disks. These servers are part of my development cluster for BYTE.com > Serving With Linux > 2003