Benchmark (computing) - Types of Benchmarks

Types of Benchmarks

1. Real program
   • word processing software
   • tool software of CDA
   • user's application software (i.e.: MIS)
2. Microbenchmark
   • Designed to measure the performance of a very small and specific piece of code.
3. Kernel
   • contains key codes
   • normally abstracted from actual program
   • popular kernel: Livermore loop
   • linpack benchmark (contains basic linear algebra subroutine written in FORTRAN language)
   • results are represented in MFLOPS
4. Component Benchmark/ micro-benchmark
   • programs designed to measure performance of a computer's basic components
   • automatic detection of computer's hardware parameters like number of registers, cache size, memory latency
5. Synthetic Benchmark
   • Procedure for programming synthetic benchmark:
     • take statistics of all types of operations from many application programs
     • get proportion of each operation
     • write program based on the proportion above
   • Types of Synthetic Benchmark are:
     • Whetstone
     • Dhrystone
   • These were the first general purpose industry standard computer benchmarks. They do not necessarily obtain high scores on modern pipelined computers.
6. I/O benchmarks
7. Database benchmarks: to measure the throughput and response times of database management systems (DBMS')
8. Parallel benchmarks: used on machines with multiple cores, processors or systems consisting of multiple machines