[pdimitar]

It's an extreme case to demonstrate if a CPU's multicore performance is clearly better than previous generations.

For what it's worth, I migrated from a consumer-grade i7 CPU to a workstation-grade Xeon and the differences in compile speeds in my everyday projects (less than 400 files) are still significant and very noticeably in favour of the Xeon.

Linux kernel compilation is just a benchmark that multiplies such differences between CPUs. Thus the buyers can -- hopefully -- make a more informed decision.

[LoSboccacc]

weird, I've a 9000+ files maven monster and intellij incremental build means I've never have to wait for compilation during normal operations, and this is with a meager i7 8550u

[pdimitar]

Well, it's an incremental build. I am talking occasionally changing dependencies in a project written in a dynamic-but-compiled language, which leads to full rebuilds. The difference was big.

It also has tooling for "watching" test directories and auto re-running tests when certain files are changed -- which utilises incremental compilation under the hood and there indeed there is no visible compilation performance difference.

[joaobeno]

Yeah, I know it is, and said pretty much what you said...

[pdimitar]

Seems I didn't catch the sarcasm, sorry. :D