Benchmarks
  • Benchmarks are programs chosen to measure the performance of a computer system
    • Synthetic benchmarks are artificial programs constructed to try to match the characteristics of a large set of programs.
      • Dhrystone
      • Whetstone
    • Kernel benchmarks are small, time-intensive pieces from real programs that are extracted and then used as benchmarks.
      • Livermore Loops
      • Linpack
    • SPEC (System Performance Evaluation Cooperative) Benchmarks are more realistic.
    • The applications that will actually be used would be the best benchmarks.
Chapter 2: The Role of Performance - 11 of 13