Sysbench 0.9.4d Available

Trevor Hemsley just updates Sysbench to version 0.94d and the archive (SYSB094D.ZIP, 510k) was uploaded on Hobbes. Sysbench is a OS/2 Benchmarking tool: Includes PM Graphics, DIVE, CPU Integer and floating point, Disk and File I/O, memory, and CD ROM benchmarks.

About this program

This is a freeware benchmark for OS/2. Like all such benchmark programs, its results can be read in many ways. Beware of making too many decisions based on its output - by their very nature, benchmark programs are *not* real world applications. By tuning your system with the aid of benchmarks, you may end up with a system that runs benchmark programs wonderfully well but runs applications badly! Just so you're aware....

It has been brought to my attention that Sysbench does not currently run on systems running OS/2 2.1x due to an error about missing DIVE files. Even when copying the supplied DIVE.DLL into \OS2\DLL on a 2.1x system the application will still not start as it makes calls to PMWIN.DLL and the ordinal numbers appear to have changed between releases. I have installed a copy of OS/2 2.1 for Windows to see if I can work out a way of making this work but, at present, short of shipping two separate copies of Sysbench, I cannot think of a way to do this. For this reason execution of Sysbench on OS/2 2.1x systems is not possible.

There are a number of files that are required to be in the same directory as the Sysbench executable. These files are:
diskit.exe
pcicfg.dat
pmbflops.exe
pmbhanoi.exe
pmbheaps.exe
pmblinpk.exe
pmbsieve.exe
pmb_dhry.exe
pmb_fft.exe
sbcpuse.run
sysbench.exe

The file PCICFG.DAT is a translation table that allows Sysbench to work out what PCI devices are what. It may be edited if you find a device that isn't in the table. You could also let me know about it and I'll incorporate it into future versions. PCICFG.DAT is a data file from a program by Ralph Brown called PCICFG that you can find on the web if you search for it.

Results produced using versions with the same release number may be directly compared with each other. If the first three digits are the same then the results are directly comparable. For example, 0.9.3 and 0.9.3a b and c can all be compared with each other but not with 0.9.4 or 0.9.2. If you're looking for results from other systems see the section further down this readme about the web site.

The detailed log of the changes from the prior releases are now itemised in changes.txt to save clogging up this readme file with them.

Program Usage

You can either invoke the program by typing SYSBENCH at a command prompt and then use the menus to perform the testing or you can run it in automatic mode using the parameters

/ALL - run all tests and then quit saving the results to the current
directory as RESULT.TXT and RESULT.HTM

/R:filename - specify the filename to which to save results. It must specify
a pre-existing directory if a directory name is given.

/H:filename - specify the filename to which to save results in HTML format. It
must specify a pre-existing directory if a directory name is given.

/DEBUG - produces messages to STDOUT that document various internal settings
and results. Use this if you are submitting a bug report to me and
want to be complete about what is going on. It's really mostly useful
for CD related problems but might help on others too. Redirect the
output from Sysbench to a text file (use SYSBENCH >test.log) and include
the file in a bug report.

/NODETECT - bypasses much of the hardware detection code added in 0.9.4.

Running

SYSBENCH /all /r:y:\sysbench\res091.txt

will run all tests and save the results to the file \sysbench\res091.txt on the Y: drive. The HTML format results will be saved as RESULT.HTM in the current directory since it isn't overridden.

Be aware that running this way from a command line will generate a set of results full of "Unknown machine" type comments. If you want to have it include some reasonable data you'll need to invoke Sysbench from a command line without any operands and go through the definition dialog pages to enter data about your machine. You can also copy SYSBENCH.INI from another machine but it'll be identical to the definitions on there if you do this.

The complete set of tests from end to end is likely to run for about half an hour or more.


Supplemental Information

This program was originally distributed complete with all source needed to compile it. The original source was written by Henrik Harmsen and was donated to the OS/2 community by him when he moved to use Linux. The source has undergone many revisions, bugfixes and has a number of new functions since that time. Please do not report problems to him as he hasn't touched the code for a long time and won't have a clue what you are talking about!

The last version of the source that was included came with Sysbench 0.9.1d which was distributed as SYSB091D.ZIP. Due to space constraints I have now REMOVED the source from the archive in order to make it smaller (~330Kb instead of ~770Kb). If you just want _a_ version of the source you can the source for 0.9.1d from http://warped.cswnet.com/Sysbench/sb091dsrc.zip.

The version of the program you now have was coded by me, Trevor Hemsley, and you should report any and all problems to me (Trevor-Hemsley@dial.pipex.com).


Web Site for results

There is a site on the internet where results are collected. It's run by me and I'll collect the results and post them. I've specifically added a "Save results as HTML" option to the File menu to save a set of results in the format ready to be posted on this site... so if you aim to send your results to me, use both the HTML and text options and assist the task of maintaining the site. Send me both html and text sets of results using this email address - sysbench@dial.pipex.com.

The results site is http://warped.cswnet.com/Sysbench.

I have attempted to gather some hardware information from within the application as it initialises. I'm attempting to get hold of the BIOS manufacturer and the video card/chipset in use and also the storage controllers that are registered with the OS/2 Resource Manager and the disks attached to them. I also query the CPU for its identity if it supports this. If any of these are incorrectly filled in please send me a mail and let me know. The more info you can provide the better.


Disclaimer

Standard disclaimers apply. This program is supplied in good faith but I am not responsible for any loss or damage that may result from use of it. All use of this program is strictly at your own risk.


Sysbench 0.9.1

This is a revision of the Sysbench 0.9.0 program, originally written by Henrik Harmsen. His introductory readme file has been renamed to DONTREAD.HCH in this package and needs to be read in conjunction with _this_ file.

Warning - Warning - Warning

You should NOT compare results produced using this revision of the program with results produced from versions prior to 0.9.1. Too many things have changed - timing bugs have been eliminated, methods of calculating test averages have changed and a different compiler has been used. You should be able to compare results from this version with any from 0.9.1 on upwards.

I would also suggest (very strongly) that this benchmark program NOT be run on any machine that has critical applications running on it. It sets itself to be the highest priority thing on your system at points in its execution and this can adversely affect other processes. It will probably stop any communications apps you have running and connections may be lost.

Installation

No special installation steps are required to install this program.

I strongly recommend that you do not use the copy of DIVE.DLL that I have shipped. I have included the latest DIVE.DLL from The Developer Connection for OS/2 volume 10. It may not be necessary as the program appears to work with the version that's on my system dated 17-02-95 4:51p. I have included the latest version anyway as that's the one I've done all my testing with. If you want to use this, copy it to your \MMOS2\DLL directory _after_ saving a copy of the existing version. This copy is *older* than that shipped in Warp 4 so don't use it for this release of OS/2. It's also possible that IBM have shipped a newer copy with a fixpack so check the date and time of your file before replacing it.

Sample result files

I have included sample result files from my two machines in this file. All results on the smaller machine were generated using OS/2 Warp Connect V3 as I do not have MMOS/2 installed on the copy of V4 that is on this machine. MMOS/2 is required for the DIVE tests

Res091.486 is generated using Sysbench 0.9.1 on my Dell 486DX2/66, 24MB RAM, with Diamond Stealth32 2MB VLB graphics card and Promise DC4030-VL2 4MB cache IDE controller, Western Digital AC31200 1.2Gb hard disk.

Res091b.486 is generated using Sysbench 0.9.1b on my Dell 486DX2/66, 24MB RAM, with Diamond Stealth32 2MB VLB graphics card and Promise DC4030-VL2 4MB cache IDE controller, Western Digital AC31200 1.2Gb hard disk.

Res091c.686 is generated using Sysbench 0.9.1c on my Dell machine which now consists only of the original case with completely new innards! This is a Freetech 586F62 motherboard based on the Intel 430HX chipset, Cyrix P120+ running at 100MHz, 40MB RAM, with no-name S3Trio64V+ 2MB PCI graphics card, Western Digital AC31200 1.2Gb hard disk attached to the onboard PCI EIDE controller.

Res091c1.686 - same system as above, running Warp 3 with an ATI Graphics Xpression 2Mb card.

Res091c2.686 - same system as above, running Warp 4 with an ATI Graphics Xpression 2Mb card.

Res091.PRO is generated using Sysbench 0.9.1 on a Micron Pentium Pro 200MHz, 64MB RAM, with ATI Graphics Pro Turbo 4MB VRAM, Adaptec AHA2940UW PCI SCSI controller, Seagate Barracuda 2.1Gb fast/wide hard disk (ST32550W). This set of results uses the Conner 1Gb narrow SCSI disk that's also installed.

Res091b.PRO is generated using Sysbench 0.9.1b on a Micron Pentium Pro 200MHz, 128MB RAM, with ATI Graphics Pro Turbo 4MB VRAM, Adaptec AHA2940UW PCI SCSI controller, Seagate Barracuda 2.1Gb fast/wide hard disk (ST32550W).

Res091c.PRO is generated using Sysbench 0.9.1c on a Micron Pentium Pro 200MHz, 128MB RAM, with ATI Graphics Pro Turbo 4MB VRAM, Adaptec AHA2940UW PCI SCSI controller, Seagate Barracuda 2.1Gb fast/wide hard disk (ST32550W) and IBM DCHS-04W Scorpion, fast/wide 4.3Gb hard disk (the subject of this test)


Bugs and warnings

 If you have the original Warp 3 or Warp Connect without any fixpacks do NOT attempt to run the file SBCPUSE.RUN or your system will stop with a TRAP 000E. This is the executable that measures the amount of CPU usage by using the new API call however the mere act of loading it causes OS/2 to TRAP if run on a system that does not support the new API call. Sysbench determines whether your system supports this or not and automatically calls it if it is supported. I have named the executable sbcpuse.run to make it more difficult for the unwary to trap their system.

No bugs that I know of (but there are bound to be some). If you find one, report it to me - Trevor-Hemsley@dial.pipex.com - and include as much information as you can. If it falls over and displays an error box with registers, quote them (a HELP SUPPRESSPOPUPS on Warp will tell you an easy way of collecting this information and save you some tedious typing). If the program generates a log file called SB_ERROR.LOG, include that too. Tell me about your machine in as much detail as you can, even if it seems irrelevant

As of 0.9.1b there's a section in the results file that reports on video data. If you suffer a video problem please save a set of results (even if they're blank) and include the video data section in your bug report. It'll tell me more about your video card and might help to solve the problem.

CONTACT AUTHOR:

Trevor Hemsley
Trevor-Hemsley@dial.pipex.com
@Macarlo, Inc.
@Macarlo's Shareware & Web
OS/2
Java Lobby Member
Java Site Accredited

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