How does the 5.4 compilers runtime compare to earlier versions and with respect to gcc?
As with any benchmark, your results will vary. The following tables lists some of the commonly used benchmarks and shows how the compiler stacks up against those on a 450MHz UltraSPARC II system. The table lists two kinds of performance numbers for a set of standard benchmark tests. The entries ending with “s”, such as 354.84s or 1.3s, represent time in seconds. The entries ending with “ms”, such as 17ms or 168435ms, represent time in milliseconds. A smaller value means a faster program, so smaller is better. All other entries, except for the Stepanov entry, show the number of operations per unit time. A higher number means a faster program, so bigger is better. For Stepanov, the ratio measures the “abstraction penalty”, and a smaller number is better.
