Document: BENCHDOS.ZIP File Group: Classic Benchmarks Creation Date: 3 February 1997 Revision Date: 11 March 1997 Title: Classic Numeric Benchmarks, Compiled for DOS Keywords: BENCHMARK PERFORMANCE LIVERMORE WHETSTONE DHRYSTONE LINPACK MIPS MFLOPS Abstract: This suite of Classic Benchmarks has been compiled to operate under DOS. The suite includes Whetstone, Dhrystone, Livermore Kernels, and Linpack. For information on these benchmarks refer to the file BENCHSCI.TXT in this library. Note: This suite is still under test and should be treated as beta test software. Please submit feedback and data sets directly to Roy, or as a posting in Section 12. Results TXT files are inserted in the directory from which the benchmarks are run. These files contain numeric results produced by the benchmark and details of the run time environment. The latter has to be typed in each time a benchmark is run. As this is rather tiresome, when submitting a number of results, it is only necessary to provide complete details once. In this case, it would be useful if runs without full details have some cross reference. Minimum requirements for the "complete" data entered are CPU chip type and MHz. An abbreviation of these is suitable for a cross reference in other tests. You may use other entry fields for your own reference purposes. The latest versions of the benchmarks can also be executed with a run time parameter N to omit the typing in phase. A batch file BATCHxxx.BAT is supplied to execute all benchmarks. This also runs program SYSTEMxx.EXE for entering configuration details once for the whole batch, the results being saved in BENCHSYS.TXT. WARNING: The benchmarks have been tested on various PCs including 386, 486, Pentium and Pentium Pro systems. They have also been run via Windows 3.1, Windows 95, NT 3.51 and 4.0. The DOS versions have also been run directly in the associated DOS mode and when booted as DOS only with MS DOS 5.0 and 6.2. However, it is inevitable that they will not run properly in all circumstances or occasionally may cause certain systems to hang. The most likely reasons for failure are hardware or software incompatibilities, particularly those associated with memory management. Remember all the problems that you have has with commercially available software or games that are supposed to have been thoroughly tested. The latter tend to have long lists of incompatibilities. The DOS versions of the benchmarks are the most vulnerable to failure as the Windows mechanisms for avoiding memory conflicts are missing and DOS only PCs are likely to make use of all kinds of old software routines. For these, the same rules apply that are normally associated with games - produce a clean DOS boot disk, free from all drivers and memory management systems. If necessary, disk compression software can be excluded and programs run from copies on a floppy disk. It should also be remembered that, in running all the benchmarks, the CPU may never have had such an exhaustive test, so the possibility of strain related hardware faults cannot be ignored. In the event of faults being encountered, it is important to know about which benchmarks ran properly besides the ones that failed (and to see the successful results files). Both optimized and non-optimized versions of the benchmarks should also be tried as they may be compiled with different memory models. The following running order is suggested: All Dhrystones - these do not use much memory and have no floating point instructions. All Whetstones - these do not use much memory but require the math coprocessor for floating point. All Linpack - these use much more memory for data and are mainly floating point calculations. All Livermore - these are the largest users of memory, including 600 KB for data. They also are mainly floating point and have, by far, the longest running time. Contributor: Roy Longbottom 101323.2241@compuserve.com Roy_Longbottom@compuserve.com