Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!snorkelwacker!usc!cs.utexas.edu!garnett
From: garnett@cs.utexas.edu (John William Garnett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Benchmarks (was Re: Read the fine print!)
Keywords: benchmarks
Message-ID: <38@persian.cs.utexas.edu>
Date: 25 Sep 90 17:43:51 GMT
References: <15640002@hpdmd48.boi.hp.com> <10548@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <26FCE703.25276@orion.oac.uci.edu> <83@raysnec.UUCP>
Followup-To: comp.unix.aix
Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 25

In article <83@raysnec.UUCP> shwake@raysnec.UUCP (Ray Shwake) writes:
>sfrank@orion.oac.uci.edu (Steven Frank) writes:
>
>>Are Dhrystone and Linpack benchmarks available??
>>[comments deleted]
>[other comments deleted]
>The state of benchmarking in the UNIX world, while
>still woefully inadequate, has at least advanced beyond such primitive
>measurements. [For a real-world example of how one benchmark suite can
>challenge another, see UnixWorld's "Big Blue's RS/6000 Isn't White Lightning"
>(Sept., 1990)].

Does anyone really consider the benchmark suite described in the above
mentioned UnixWorld article to be a valid indicator of performance? 
According to the article, the benchmark in question measured floating
point performance by running an awk program [this awk test appears to
have been the basis for saying that the RS/6000 is slower at floating
point than a 25Mhz 486 machine...].

Followups to comp.unix.aix or other appropriate place...
-- 
John Garnett
                              University of Texas at Austin
garnett@cs.utexas.edu         Department of Computer Science
                              Austin, Texas