Skip navigation

Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation

Facebook logo LinkedIn logo Twitter logo
 
 
 

SPEC/GWPG announces benchmark line-up

Expected this fall and winter: a wide range of releases, from power
consumption to SPECviewperf 10.1, to new application benchmarks

 

LOS ANGELES, August 13, 2008 – SPEC’s Graphics and Workstation Performance Group (SPEC/GWPG) announced a wide range of upcoming benchmarks at the SIGGRAPH 2008 conference in Los Angeles.

The new offerings will include a power-performance benchmark for workstations, a new version of SPECviewperf, and new and updated application benchmarks. All are slated for release before spring of next year.

“Under our expanded charter announced last year, we are branching out in new directions such as power consumption, while continuing to move ahead with our graphics and workstation application benchmarks,” says George Chaltas, SPEC/GWPG chair. “The overriding objective is to apply SPEC’s expertise and proven methodologies in areas that provide the most value to users, vendors and testing labs worldwide.”

Workstation power consumption

Since the beginning of the year, a SPEC/GWPG subcommittee has been working on an industry-standard benchmark that measures power consumption in relation to performance for professional workstations. An initial benchmark is being submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for possible use in its V5.0 requirements for workstation ENERGY STAR qualification. A public release of a SPEC/GWPG power benchmark will follow.

The SPEC/GWPG power benchmark will incorporate workloads from the popular SPECviewperf benchmark for 3D graphics, as well as CPU workloads in areas such as rendering, computational fluid dynamics, scientific computing, and video encoding. Workloads will have the common attributes of scalability, open source, and portability across all major workstation platforms.

New in SPECviewperf 10.1

Version 10.1 of SPECviewperf, developed by SPEC’s graphics performance characterization (SPECgpc) working group, is expected before the end of the year. It will feature new functionality and a major update of viewsets, the testing data sets that are based on traces of graphical content in real applications.

On the functionality side, SPECviewperf 10.1 will have the ability to measure performance for applications incorporating vertex buffer objects (VBOs) and the latest OpenGL (GL2) shaders.

Updates are being made to more than half of the viewsets, including those based on traces of 3ds Max, Catia, EnSight, Maya and Siemens PLM NX. Changes range from new traces that add GL2 and VBO functionality to test files, to completely new models that provide a greater challenge to the latest graphics systems.

New application benchmarks

SPEC/GWPG’s Application Performance Characterization (SPECapc) project group has a wide range of new and updated benchmarks planned for fall and winter release. The list includes performance evaluation software for workstations running Siemens PLM NX5, 3ds Max 2009, Maya 2009, and Lightwave 3D.

SPECapc also provides benchmarks for Pro/ENGINEER, Solid Edge and SolidWorks.

New traces of the Catia viewset in the upcoming SPECviewperf 10.1 will take advantage of support for GL2 shaders and vertex buffer objects (VBOs).
The new toy shop model for the Maya viewset in the upcoming SPECviewperf 10.1 includes a massive number of textures.

About SPEC/GWPG

SPEC/GWPG is an umbrella organization for approved project groups that develop standardized methods of measuring graphics and workstation performance for different hardware platforms. It is a committee of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corp. (SPEC), a non-profit corporation formed to establish, maintain and endorse a standardized set of relevant benchmarks that can be applied to the newest generation of computers.

SPEC/GWPG members include AMD, Apple, Dell, Fujitsu-Siemens, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, NVIDIA and Sun. For more information, visit: www.spec.org/gwpg.

###

Images available upon request.

Media contact: Bob Cramblitt
Cramblitt & Company
919-481-4599; info@cramco.com

SPEC, SPECapc and SPECgpc are trademarks or service marks of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. All other trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks belong to their respective holders.