Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!wuarchive!emory!hubcap!mark
From: mark@hubcap.clemson.edu (Mark Smotherman)
Newsgroups: comp.benchmarks
Subject: Re: rhealstones benchmark
Message-ID: <12609@hubcap.clemson.edu>
Date: 14 Jan 91 21:31:38 GMT
References: <1404@gouldfr.UUCP>
Organization: Clemson University, Clemson, SC
Lines: 75

Sorry, email bounced.


There are at least two real-time benchmarks available under similar
names:



Realstone from MODCOMP.  It is an extension to Whetstone (see below).

[1] Julio Tunon, "A Whetstone-Based Real-Time Benchmark,"
    Measurements & Control, October 1987, vol. 21, no. 5, pp. 156-163.

[2] G. Rabbat, B. Furht, and R. Kibler, "Three-Dimensional Computers
    and Measuring Their Performance," ACM Computer Architecture News,
    vol. 16, no. 3, June 1988, pp. 9-16.



Rhealstone from Dr. Dobb's Journal.  It is a suite of six kernels:
    1) task switching,
    2) high-priority task preemption,
    3) interrupt latency,
    4) "semaphore shuffle" (i.e. cost of semaphore operations when
       they are used to implement mutual exclusion), 
    5) "deadlock break" (i.e. time for system to notice and raise the
       priority of the task that holds a requested critical resource)
    6) intertask message latency

[1] R.P. Kar and K. Porter, "Rhealstone: A Real-Time Benchmarking Proposal,"
    Dr. Dobb's Journal, February 1989, pp. 14-16,18,22,24.

[2] R.P. Kar, "Implementing the Rhealstone Real-Time Benchmark,"
    Dr. Dobb's Journal, April 1990, pp. 46,48,50-51,53-55.

[3] Rhealstone Program Listing, Dr. Dobb's Journal, April 1990, pp. 100-
    104.  [code is specific to iRMX; article states that source is
    available on a disk from DDJ via US mail, on CompuServe DDJ Forum,
    and on the DDJ Listing Service (phone number given)]


-----------------------------------
I obtained info on realstone in the summer of 1988 from Nigel Gamble
of MODCOMP.

> Realstone was developed at MODCOMP to measure the performance
> of the CLASSIC range of real-time processors.  It measures
> CPU speed as a function of interrupt loading (but not I/O
> processing).  ...  ([The Tunon] article refers to
> the benchmark as M-Stone, but it is, in fact, the same one that
> MODCOMP calls Realstone.)
>
> However, I believe that a further refinement of the Realstone benchmark
> which measures the interrelationship of CPU speed, interrupt handling
> capability AND I/O throughput is being developed by our special
> systems group.  This will be known as the M^3 ("M cubed") benchmark.
> For an account of this benchmarking technique see "Three-dimensional
> computer performance" by Guy Rabbat, Borko Furht and Ron Kibler, in
> Computer (the journal of the Computer Society of the IEEE), July 1988.
> The article introduces the concept of a 3D computer and defines it
> in terms of a three-dimensional performance graph whose axis are
> labelled MIPS-1 (Mega Instructions Per Sec), MIPS-2 (Mega Interrupts
> Per Sec) and MIPS-3 (Mega I/O Per Sec).
> ...
>
> Nigel Gamble		uunet!modcomp!nigel
> MODCOMP/AEG
> 1650 W McNab Rd
> PO Box 6099
> Ft Lauderdale
> Fl 33340-6099

-- 
Mark Smotherman, Comp. Sci. Dept., Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634
INTERNET: mark@hubcap.clemson.edu    UUCP: gatech!hubcap!mark