Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!caen!uflorida!travis!tom From: tom@ssd.csd.harris.com (Tom Horsley) Newsgroups: comp.benchmarks Subject: Re: benchmark evaluations Message-ID: Date: 19 Dec 90 12:00:51 GMT References: <12220@hubcap.clemson.edu> <44157@mips.mips.COM> <6434@mace.cc.purdue.edu> <44201@mips.mips.COM> Sender: news@travis.csd.harris.com Organization: Harris Computer Systems Division Lines: 32 In-reply-to: mash@mips.COM's message of 19 Dec 90 03:32:35 GMT >>>>> Regarding Re: benchmark evaluations; mash@mips.COM (John Mashey) adds: mash> Let me try another way: all of these rules were basically put together mash> to avoid marketing gimmickry, and provide more meaningful disclosures, mash> in some cases, just by reminding people that things like compiler mash> release just might be meaningful, and are often lost. mash> A lot of this follows the sorts of disclosures that many straightforward mash> vendors have tried to work into their performance documents, mash> so it's hardly new. Speaking of full disclosures, the latest SPEC reports (which are unfortunately locked in the office next to me so I can't get to them right now to pull off the exact numbers) have a lot of different numbers for MIPS based machines. Just using the 25MHZ machines as an example (I think thats an R3000?) there are numbers that range from somewhere around 16-17 SPECmarks to 19-20 SPECmarks for machines that seem nearly identical from everything described in the SPEC newsletter. They have the same clock rate, the same cache size, about the same amount of main memory, and are using the same compilers. The question then becomes: "What's different?" I tend to suspect memory bandwidth, but maybe they have different float units? Can anyone tell me the real reason the numbers vary so much? -- ====================================================================== domain: tahorsley@csd.harris.com USMail: Tom Horsley uucp: ...!uunet!hcx1!tahorsley 511 Kingbird Circle Delray Beach, FL 33444 +==== Censorship is the only form of Obscenity ======================+ | (Wait, I forgot government tobacco subsidies...) | +====================================================================+