Make the following calculations on the raw data in order to explore how different measures color the conclusions one can make. (Doing these exercises will be much easier using a spreadsheet.)
a. Create a table similar to that shown in Figure 1.26, except express the results as normalized to the Pentium D for each benchmark.
b. Calculate the arithmetic mean of the performance of each processor. Use both the original performance and your normalized performance calculated in part (a).
c. Given your answer from part (b), can you draw any conflicting conclusions about the relative performance of the different processors?
d. Calculate the geometric mean of the normalized performance of the dual processors and the geometric mean of the normalized performance of the single processors for the Dhrystone benchmark.
e. Given your plot in part (e), in what area does a dual processor gain in performance? Explain, given your knowledge of parallel processing and architecture, why these results are as they are.

Figure 1.26 Performance of several processors on two benchmarks.

Clock frequency (MHz) 2.400 2.200 3,000 3.200 2,800 1.800 2.800 3.000 Memory Dhrystone Chip Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Pentium EE 840 Pentium D 820 Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Pentium 4 Athlon 64 3000+ Pentium 4 570 Processor X # of cores performance performance 3.423 3.228 3,000 2.941 2,731 2.953 3.501 7,000 20.718 18.893 15.220 17.129 7.621 7.628 11.210 5,000