SPEC Releases Improved CPU2006 Benchmark

By DE Editors

The Standard Performance Evaluation Corp. (SPEC; Warrenton, VA) released a new version of SPEC CPU2006 with improvements that impact nearly everyone who uses the benchmark or will potentially use it. SPEC’s CPU benchmarks have been the worldwide standard for measuring compute-intensive performance since 1989.

Improvements in SPEC CPU2006 V1.1 include greater portability, faster setup on large systems, better R&D tools, improved ease of use, and new features make it easier to run on Windows platforms. Results generated by SPEC CPU2006 V1.1 are comparable to results from V1.0.

Upgrades to V1.1 are free to current licensees and will be sent automatically to anyone who has licensed SPEC CPU2006 within the last four months (as of June). SPEC will notify anyone holding a license for more than four months and send the new version upon verifying a shipping address.

For those without a SPEC CPU2006 license, V1.1 is available for immediate delivery on DVD from SPEC. The cost is $800 for new customers, $400 for upgrades from SPEC CPU2000, and $200 for qualified non-profit organizations and accredited educational institutions. General requirements for running the benchmarks include a Windows or UNIX operating system, a DVD drive, 1 to 2 GB of memory, 8 GB of unused disk space, and a set of compilers.

For additional product and ordering information, go to SPEC.

For earlier DEcoverage, see “SPEC Releases SPECviewperf 10 for Linux/Unix,” (May 2008).

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.