[Tfug] BogoMIPS

[Rich]

On Jul 18, 2007, at 4:59 am, Felix Tilley wrote:

> Bogus MIPS:
No, it's "BogoMips".

> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogomip
Million instructions per... what? fortnight? This reminds me of  
animators talking about "a nurb".

> This seems only to apply to Linux.
 From http://www.clifton.nl/index.html?bogomips.html

Lars Wirzenius explaining BogoMips in 1993:
	"[...] BogoMips are Linus's own invention. The linux kernel version  
0.99.11 (dated 11 July 1993) needed a timing loop [...] 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. [...] 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 boot-up 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.'"

So yeah. Linux only. :-)

R.