SPEC Improves CPU2006 Benchmark

SPEC CPU2006 v1.1 features updates to 12 benchmarks to improve portability to new and existing platforms.

"V1.1 includes dozens of incremental upgrades that add up to a significant new release," said Jeff Reilly, SPEC CPU subcommittee chair. "There are changes and additions that address the needs of practically every segment of the CPU benchmarking community."

Improvements in SPEC CPU2006 v1.1 include a new code to make it easier to move the benchmarking setup from one system to another without recompiling, as well as updates to 12 benchmarks to improve portability to new and existing platforms. Parallel setup and other new features reportedly make setup faster on multicore, multithreaded systems.

Documentation of monitor hooks and a utility that removes run-rule checks are part of v1.1, as are new features that make it easier to run the benchmark on Windows platforms.

Results generated by SPEC CPU2006 v1.1 are comparable to results from v1. Upgrades to v1.1 are free to current licensees and will be sent automatically to anyone who has licensed SPEC CPU2006 within the past four months. SPEC will notify anyone holding a license for more than four months and send the new version upon verification of 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 nonprofit 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.