[Qemu-devel] Speed comparison

[ML <ml@railnet.it>]

Hi all!
I have been using Qemu for a while now and first of all let me thank and
congratulate all of you developers on a great, *GREAT* work so far!
The first time I used Qemu I couldn't believe my eyes: it is fast, solid, smart!
It's a real godsend for all developers who need to test applications on
different platforms without continuous rebooting or switching from one computer
to another.
Just GREAT!!!

I don't know whether this has been answered before (or if there is an obvious
answer to this question), I have made some searching in the mailing list but
couldn't find anything in the near past.

The thing is that I'm using Qemu on a Slackware linux host running both Win98
and WinXP guests.
I have noticed that the very same Windows application, which uses intensive
math calculations, is way faster (at least twice as much) on the Win98 guest
compared to the WinXP one.
I am not talking about graphic rendering and stuff, just the plain time needed
to perform the same math calculations.
As a confirmation to this, on a general level Win98 guest's overall performance 
seems much better than XP's.

I was just curious to know if this behavior can be related to something
intrinsic to XP and 98 internals or if there are other Qemu related
explanations (and possible fine tunings).

TIA and keep up the fantastic work!

Ciao,
Piero