In preparation for the
upcoming release of LLVM 3.3, here is an extensive round of C/C++ benchmarks
from GCC 4.8.0, LLVM Clang 3.2, and LLVM Clang 3.3-rc1 to look at the Linux compiler
performance. Benchmarks happened from three different systems bearing Intel Core
i7 3960X, AMD FX-8350, and Intel Core i3 3217U processors for a diverse look at
the performance.
LLVM
Clang 3.3 brings many new features to the innovative multi-platform open-source
compiler infrastructure and earlier benchmarks on Phoronix have found it to be
noticeably faster in some
scenarios. This is great competition to the
GCC 4.8.0 release that happened in late March and a worthwhile successor to
the December release of LLVM 3.2.
The systems used for benchmarking included coverage of the Intel Core i7 3960X
"Sandy Bridge" Extreme Edition, AMD FX-8350 "Vishera" (Bulldozer
2), and Intel Core i3 3217U "Ivy Bridge" processors. Testing of these
three systems isn't meant to compare each other in a competitive manner but simply
a diverse range of x86 CPU architectures to stress by LLVM Clang 3.3 in looking
for performance changes. These three systems were running Ubuntu Linux x86_64.
The CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS were maintained the same throughout testing GCC 4.8.0,
LLVM Clang 3.2, and LLVM Clang 3.3 RC1. All three compilers were built from source
on each system in a performance-optimized debugging-disabled state. All of this
compiler benchmarking was handled in a fully automated and reproducible manner
using the open-source Phoronix Test
Suite software.