CPU2017 Flag Description
New H3C Technologies Co., Ltd. H3C UniServer R4900 G3 (Intel Xeon Platinum 8256)

Copyright © 2016 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved.


Base Compiler Invocation

C benchmarks

C++ benchmarks

Fortran benchmarks

Benchmarks using both Fortran and C

Benchmarks using both C and C++

Benchmarks using Fortran, C, and C++


Peak Compiler Invocation

C benchmarks

C++ benchmarks

Fortran benchmarks

Benchmarks using both Fortran and C

521.wrf_r

527.cam4_r

Benchmarks using both C and C++

511.povray_r

526.blender_r

Benchmarks using Fortran, C, and C++


Base Portability Flags

503.bwaves_r

507.cactuBSSN_r

508.namd_r

510.parest_r

511.povray_r

519.lbm_r

521.wrf_r

526.blender_r

527.cam4_r

538.imagick_r

544.nab_r

549.fotonik3d_r

554.roms_r


Peak Portability Flags

503.bwaves_r

507.cactuBSSN_r

508.namd_r

510.parest_r

511.povray_r

519.lbm_r

521.wrf_r

526.blender_r

527.cam4_r

538.imagick_r

544.nab_r

549.fotonik3d_r

554.roms_r


Base Optimization Flags

C benchmarks

C++ benchmarks

Fortran benchmarks

Benchmarks using both Fortran and C

Benchmarks using both C and C++

Benchmarks using Fortran, C, and C++


Peak Optimization Flags

C benchmarks

519.lbm_r

538.imagick_r

544.nab_r

C++ benchmarks

508.namd_r

510.parest_r

Fortran benchmarks

503.bwaves_r

549.fotonik3d_r

554.roms_r

Benchmarks using both Fortran and C

521.wrf_r

527.cam4_r

Benchmarks using both C and C++

511.povray_r

526.blender_r

Benchmarks using Fortran, C, and C++

507.cactuBSSN_r


Implicitly Included Flags

This section contains descriptions of flags that were included implicitly by other flags, but which do not have a permanent home at SPEC.


Commands and Options Used to Submit Benchmark Runs

submit= MYMASK=`printf '0x%x' $((1<<$SPECCOPYNUM))`; /usr/bin/taskset $MYMASK $command
When running multiple copies of benchmarks, the SPEC config file feature submit is used to cause individual jobs to be bound to specific processors. This specific submit command, using taskset, is used for Linux64 systems without numactl.
Here is a brief guide to understanding the specific command which will be found in the config file:
submit= numactl --localalloc --physcpubind=$SPECCOPYNUM $command
When running multiple copies of benchmarks, the SPEC config file feature submit is used to cause individual jobs to be bound to specific processors. This specific submit command is used for Linux64 systems with support for numactl.
Here is a brief guide to understanding the specific command which will be found in the config file:

Shell, Environment, and Other Software Settings

numactl --interleave=all "runspec command"
Launching a process with numactl --interleave=all sets the memory interleave policy so that memory will be allocated using round robin on nodes. When memory cannot be allocated on the current interleave target fall back to other nodes.
KMP_STACKSIZE
Specify stack size to be allocated for each thread.
KMP_AFFINITY
Syntax: KMP_AFFINITY=[<modifier>,...]<type>[,<permute>][,<offset>]
The value for the environment variable KMP_AFFINITY affects how the threads from an auto-parallelized program are scheduled across processors.
It applies to binaries built with -qopenmp and -parallel (Linux and Mac OS X) or /Qopenmp and /Qparallel (Windows).
modifier:
    granularity=fine Causes each OpenMP thread to be bound to a single thread context.
type:
    compact Specifying compact assigns the OpenMP thread <n>+1 to a free thread context as close as possible to the thread context where the <n> OpenMP thread was placed.
    scatter Specifying scatter distributes the threads as evenly as possible across the entire system.
permute: The permute specifier is an integer value controls which levels are most significant when sorting the machine topology map. A value for permute forces the mappings to make the specified number of most significant levels of the sort the least significant, and it inverts the order of significance.
offset: The offset specifier indicates the starting position for thread assignment.

Please see the Thread Affinity Interface article in the Intel Composer XE Documentation for more details.

Example: KMP_AFFINITY=granularity=fine,scatter
Specifying granularity=fine selects the finest granularity level and causes each OpenMP or auto-par thread to be bound to a single thread context.
This ensures that there is only one thread per core on cores supporting HyperThreading Technology
Specifying scatter distributes the threads as evenly as possible across the entire system.
Hence a combination of these two options, will spread the threads evenly across sockets, with one thread per physical core.

Example: KMP_AFFINITY=compact,1,0
Specifying compact will assign the n+1 thread to a free thread context as close as possible to thread n.
A default granularity=core is implied if no granularity is explicitly specified.
Specifying 1,0 sets permute and offset values of the thread assignment.
With a permute value of 1, thread n+1 is assigned to a consecutive core. With an offset of 0, the process's first thread 0 will be assigned to thread 0.
The same behavior is exhibited in a multisocket system.
OMP_NUM_THREADS
Sets the maximum number of threads to use for OpenMP* parallel regions if no other value is specified in the application. This environment variable applies to both -qopenmp and -parallel (Linux and Mac OS X) or /Qopenmp and /Qparallel (Windows). Example syntax on a Linux system with 8 cores: export OMP_NUM_THREADS=8
Set stack size to unlimited
The command "ulimit -s unlimited" is used to set the stack size limit to unlimited.
Free the file system page cache
The command "echo 1> /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches" is used to free up the filesystem page cache.

Red Hat Specific features

Transparent Huge Pages
On RedHat EL 6 and later, Transparent Hugepages increase the memory page size from 4 kilobytes to 2 megabytes. Transparent Hugepages provide significant performance advantages on systems with highly contended resources and large memory workloads. If memory utilization is too high or memory is badly fragmented which prevents hugepages being allocated, the kernel will assign smaller 4k pages instead.
Hugepages are used by default unless the /sys/kernel/mm/redhat_transparent_hugepage/enabled field is changed from its RedHat EL6 default of 'always'.

Operating System Tuning Parameters

cpupower frequency-set
cpupower utility is a collection of tools for power efficiency of processor. frequency-set sub-command controls settings for processor frequency. "-g [governor]" specifies a policy to select processor frequency. The performance governor statically sets frequency of the processor cores specified by "-c" option to the highest possible for maximum performance.
nohz_full
This kernel option sets adaptive tick mode (NOHZ_FULL) to specified processors. Since the number of interrupts is reduced to ones per second, latency-sensitive applications can take advantage of it.

Firmware / BIOS / Microcode Settings

Enhanced Halt State (C1E)
Enabling this option which is the default allows the processor to transmit to its minimum frequency when entering the power state C1. If the switch is disabled the CPU stays at its maximum frequency in C1. Because of the increase of power consumption users should only select this option after performing application benchmarking to verify improved performance in their environment. The default is "Enabled".
DCU Streamer Prefetcher
This BIOS switch allows 2 options: "Enabled" and "Disabled". The default is "Enabled".
This prefetcher is a L1 data cache prefetcher, which detects multiple loads from the same cache line done within a time limit, in order to then prefetch the next line from the L2 cache or the main memory into the L1 cache based on the assumption that the next cache line will also be needed.
Hardware Prefetch
The hardware prefetcher operates transparently, without programmer intervention, to fetch streams of data and instruction from memory into the unified second-level cache. The prefetcher is capable of handling multiple streams in either the forward or backward direction. It is triggered when successive cache misses occur in the last-level cache and a stride in the access pattern is detected, such as in the case of loop iterations that access array elements. The prefetching occurs up to a page boundary. This feature can be disabled through the BIOS. Default is Enable.
Enforce POR
This can be one of the following: [Disable] or [Enable]. Enable to enforce POR (Plan Of Record) restriction for DDR4 frequency and voltage programming. Memory speeds will be capped accordingly. Disabling allows user selection of additional supported memory speeds.
Isoc Mode
Enabling the isochronous (ISOC) mode option reduces the credits available for memory traffic. For memory requests, this option reduces latency at the expense of throughput under heavy loads. Select Enable to enable Isochronous support to meet QoS (Quality of Service) requirements. This feature is especially important for Virtualization Technology.
Adjacent Cache Prefetch
The Adjacent Cache-Line Prefetch mechanism, like automatic hardware prefetch, operates without programmer intervention. When enabled through the BIOS, two 64-byte cache lines are fetched into a 128-byte sector, regardless of whether the additional cache line has been requested or not. In applications with relatively poor spatial locality, the cache miss ratio is higher. A cache miss on an Intel Pentium 4 processor-based system (with adjacent sector prefetch enabled) brings in 128 byte, leading to higher bus utilization (assuming that the application did not need the other 64 bytes). When adjacent sector prefetch is disabled, an Intel Pentium4 processor-based system only fetches 64 bytes. The other 64 bytes of the sector in the last-level cache are not used unless the application explicitly issues a load to that address. Disabling adjacent sector prefetch on Intel Pentium4 processor-based systems can reduce bus traffic. Default is Enable.
Hardware P-States
This BIOS switch allows 4 options: "Native Mode", "Disabled", "Out of Band Mode" and "Native Mode with No legacy Support". The default is "Native Mode".
With Hardware Power Management(HWPM) the processors provides a flexible interface between Hardware and Platform for performance management and improving energy efficiency.
In Native Mode the HWPM operates cooperatively with the OS via a software interface to provide constraints and hints.
When disabled, system does not use HWPM.
EIST PSD Function
Function of the Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology (EIST).
EIST reduces the latency inherent with changing the voltage-frequency pair (P-state), thus allowing those transitions to occur more frequently. This allows for more granular, demand-based switching and can optimize the power-to-performance balance, based on the demands of the applications.
Power Supply Mode (Default = Balanced Performance)
This BIOS switch allows 4 options: "Balanced performance", "Performance", "Balanced Energy" and "Energy Efficient". The default is "Balanced Performance" optimized to maximum power savings with minimal impact on performance. "Performance" disables all power management options with any impact on performance. "Balanced Energy" is optimized for power efficiency and "Energy Efficient" for power savings. The BIOS switch is only selectable if the BIOS switch "Power Technology" is set to "Custom".
The two options "Balanced Performance" and "Balanced Energy" should always be the first choice as both options optimize the efficiency of the system. In cases where the performance is not sufficient or the power consumption is too high the two options "Performance" or "Energy Efficient" could be an alternative.
IMC Interleaving
This BIOS option controls the interleaving between the Integrated Memory Controllers (IMCs). There are two IMCs per socket in Skylake Server. If IMC Interleaving is set to 2-way, addresses will be interleaved between the two IMCs. If IMC Interleaving is set to 1-way, there will be no interleaving. If SNC is disabled, IMC Interleaving should be set to 2-way. If SNC is enabled, IMC Interleaving should be set to 1-way. This BIOS switch allows 3 options: "Auto" , "1-way Interleave" and "2-way Interleave". Default setting is "Auto".
Hyper-Threading [all]
This BIOS option enables or disables additional hardware thread which shares same physical core. Generally "Enabled" is recommended but disabling it makes sense for the application which requires the shortest possible response times. Default setting is "Enabled".
Link Frequency Select
This switch allows the configuration of the Intel Ultra Path Interconnect (UPI) link speed. Default is auto, which configures the optimal link speed automatically. It can be set "9.6 GT/s", "10.4 GT/s" or "Auto".
LLC dead line alloc
This BIOS switch allows 2 options: "Enabled" and "Disabled". The default is "Enabled". In the Skylake non-inclusive cache scheme, the mid-level cache (MLC) evictions are filled into the last-level cache (LLC). When lines are evicted from the MLC, the core can flag them as "dead" (i.e., not likely to be read again). The LLC has the option to drop dead lines and not fill them in the LLC. If the Dead Line LLC Alloc feature is disabled, dead lines will always be dropped and will never fill into the LLC. This can help save space in the LLC and prevent the LLC from evicting useful data. However, if the Dead Line LLC Alloc feature is enabled, the LLC can opportunistically fill dead lines into the LLC if there is free space available.
Package C State
This BIOS option allows 6 options: "C0/C1", "C2", "C6(non Retention)", "C6(Retention)", "No Limit" and "Auto". The default setting is "Auto". Package C-states is one of energy-saving options of the processor, which not only allow the individual cores of a processor, but the entire processor chip to be put into a type of sleep state. As a result, power consumption is even further reduced. But the "waking-up time" that is required to change from the lower package C-states to the active (C0) state is even longer in comparison with the CPU or core C-states. If the "C0" setting is made in the BIOS, the processor chip always remains active. It can improve the performance of latency sensitive workloads.
Patrol Scrub
This BIOS option enables or disables the so-called memory scrubbing, which cyclically accesses the main memory of the system in the background regardless of the operating system in order to detect and correct memory errors in a preventive way. The time of this memory test cannot be influenced and can under certain circumstances result in losses in performance. The disabling of the Patrol Scrub option increases the probability of discovering memory errors in case of active accesses by the operating system. Until these errors are correctable, the ECC technology of the memory modules ensures that the system continues to run in a stable way. However, too many correctable memory errors increase the risk of discovering non-correctable errors, which then result in a system standstill.
Stale AtoS
This BIOS switch allows 2 options: "Enabled" and "Disabled". The default is "Disabled".
The in-memory directory has three states: I, A, and S. I (invalid) state means the data is clean and does not exist in any other socket's cache. A (snoopAll) state means the data may exist in another socket in exclusive or modified state. S (Shared) state means the data is clean and may be shared across one or more socket's caches.
When doing a read to memory, if the directory line is in the A state we must snoop all the other sockets because another socket may have the line in modified state. If this is the case, the snoop will return the modified data. However, it may be the case that a line is read in A state and all the snoops come back a miss. This can happen if another socket read the line earlier and then silently dropped it from its cache without modifying it.
If Stale AtoS feature is enabled, in the situation where a line in A state returns only snoop misses, the line will transition to S state. That way, subsequent reads to the line will encounter it in S state and not have to snoop, saving latency and snoop bandwidth. Stale AtoS may be beneficial in a workload where there are many cross-socket reads.
Sub NUMA Cluster
Sub NUMA Cluster (SNC) breaks up the last-level cache (LLC) into two disjoint clusters based on address range, with each cluster bound to one memory controller. SNC improves average latency to the LLC/memory and is a replacement for the "Cluster On Die" (COD) feature found in previous processor families. For a multi-socketed system, all SNC clusters are mapped to unique NUMA domains. IMC Interleaving must be set to the correct value to correspond with SNC enable/disable. If SNC and IMC Interleave are both set to Auto, the result will be SNC disabled (only one cluster per socket) with 2-way IMC interleave. If SNC is set to Enable, IMC Interleave should be set to 1-way, which will result in two clusters per socket. The BIOS switch "Sub NUMA Clustering" allows 3 options: "Auto", "Enabled" and "Disabled". The default setting is "Disabled".
Intel VT for Directed I/O (VT-d)
This BIOS option enables or disables I/O virtualization functions of the CPU. If the server is not used for virtualization, this option should be set to "Disabled". Default setting is "Enabled".
VMX
This BIOS option enables or disables additional virtualization functions of the CPU. If the server is not used for virtualization, this option should be set to "Disabled". This can result in energy savings. Default setting is "Enabled".
Trusted Execution Technology
Enable Intel Trusted Execution Technology (Intel TXT). The default setting is "Disabled".
XPT Prefetcher
This option configures the processor Xtended Prediciton Table (XPT) prefetch feature. The XPT prefetcher exists on top of other prefetchers that that can prefetch data in the core DCU, MLC, and LLC. The XPT prefetcher will issue a speculative DRAM read request in parallel to an LLC lookup. This prefetch bypasses the LLC, saving latency. In some cases, setting this option to disabled can improve performance. In some cases, setting this option to disabled can improve performance. Typically, setting this option to enable provides better performance. This option must be enabled when Sub-NUMA Clustering is enabled. Values for this BIOS option can be: Enabled: Allows a read request sent to the LLC to speculatively issue a copy of the read to the memory controller requesting the prefetch. Disabled: Does not allow the LLC to speculatively issue copies of reads. Disabling this will also disables Sub-NUMA Cluster (SNC).
DCA
DCA(Direct Cache Access) capable I/O devices such as network controllers can place data directly into the CPU cache, which improves response time. Enabling this option allows processors to increase I/O performance by placing data from I/O devices directly into the processor cache. This setting helps to reduce cache misses. The default setting is "Disabled".
Workload Configuration
Controls the aggressiveness of the energy performance BIAS settings. This bit field allows the Basic Input-Output System (BIOS) to choose a configuration that may improve performance on certain workloads. Can be UMA or NUMA. The default is "UMA".
Autonomous Core C-State
This BIOS switch allows 2 options: "Enabled" and "Disabled". The default is "Disabled". Enabled: HALT and C1 request get converted to C6 requests in hardware. Disabled: only C0 and C1 are used by the OS. C1 gets enabled automatically when an OS autohalts.

Flag description origin markings:

[user] Indicates that the flag description came from the user flags file.
[suite] Indicates that the flag description came from the suite-wide flags file.
[benchmark] Indicates that the flag description came from a per-benchmark flags file.

The flags files that were used to format this result can be browsed at
http://www.spec.org/cpu2017/flags/Intel-ic2021-official-linux64_revA.html,
http://www.spec.org/cpu2017/flags/New_H3C-Platform-Settings-V1.4-CLX-RevB.html.

You can also download the XML flags sources by saving the following links:
http://www.spec.org/cpu2017/flags/Intel-ic2021-official-linux64_revA.xml,
http://www.spec.org/cpu2017/flags/New_H3C-Platform-Settings-V1.4-CLX-RevB.xml.


For questions about the meanings of these flags, please contact the tester.
For other inquiries, please contact info@spec.org
Copyright 2017-2021 Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation
Tested with SPEC CPU2017 v1.1.8.
Report generated on 2021-08-19 10:48:24 by SPEC CPU2017 flags formatter v5178.