A synthetic benchmark 论文

摘要

A simple method of measuring performance is by means of a benchmark program. Unless such a program is carefully constructed it is unlikely to be typical of the many thousands of programs run at an installation. An example benchmark for measuring the processor power of scientific computers is presented: this is compared with other methods of assessing computer power. (Received December 1974) An important characteristic of computers used for scientific work is the speed of the central processor unit. A simple technique for comparing this speed for a variety of machines is to time some clearly defined task on each one. Unfortunately the ratio of speeds obtained varies enormously with the nature of the task being performed. If the task is defined informally in words, large variations can be caused by small differences in the tasks actually performed on the machines. These variations can be largely overcome by using a high level language to specify the task. An additional advantage of this method is that the efficiency of the compiler and the differences in