[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>could anyone please tell me what "BogoMIPS" at bootup means?
See the BogoMips mini-HOWTO, which you should be able to find in
/usr/doc/HOWTO or /usr/share/doc/HOWTO depending on your version of
Debian.
`MIPS is short for Millions of Instructions Per Second. It
is a measure for the computation speed of a program. Like
most such measures, it is more often abused than used propÂ
erly (it is very difficult to justly compare MIPS for difÂ
ferent kinds of computers).
BogoMips are Linus's invention. The kernel (or was it a
device driver?) needs a timing loop (the time is too short
and/or needs to be too exact for a non-busy-loop method of
waiting), which must be calibrated to the processor speed of
the machine. Hence, the kernel measures at boot time how
fast a certain kind of busy loop runs on a computer. "Bogo"
comes from "bogus", i.e, something which is a fake. Hence,
the BogoMips value gives some indication of the processor
speed, but it is way too unscientific to be called anything
but BogoMips.
The reasons (there are two) it is printed during bootup is
that a) it is slightly useful for debugging and for checking
that the computers caches and turbo button work, and b)
Linus loves to chuckle when he sees confused people on the
news.'
--
Colin Watson [EMAIL PROTECTED]
