From performance rating to sustainability: SPEC tackles a key global challenge

By Klaus-Dieter Lange, Chair, International Standards Group

Since 2008, SPEC has developed and maintained the SPECpower_ssj benchmark to evaluate the power and performance characteristics of server-class computers. Like other SPEC benchmarks, the SPECpower benchmark enables vendors to make realistic comparisons between their products and those of their competitors, while allowing buyers to determine the best solutions for their use cases. As sustainability has become an increasingly important global issue, the SPECpower benchmark has played a critical role in enabling and encouraging vendors to improve the energy efficiency of their products. Over the last few years, the growing focus on sustainability has also led to an important new direction for SPEC.

SPEC Releases SPECapc for Solidworks 2022 Benchmark

By Trey Morton, SPEC Application Performance Characterization Committee Chair

I'm excited that SPEC has released the SPECapc for Solidworks 2022 benchmark, which offers application performance measurement for workstations running Dassault Systèmes Solidworks 2022. An industry-leading portfolio of 3D design and engineering applications, Solidworks is used by millions of innovators worldwide, and the latest version delivers hundreds of enhancements that accelerate innovation and streamline and speed up the product development process.

New SPECviewperf 2020 v3.1 Benchmark for Measuring Graphics Performance

By Ross Cunniff, SPECgpc Chair

Graphics requirements continue to evolve rapidly, and the SPEC® Graphics Performance Committee has responded with the release of the SPECviewperf 2020 v3.1 benchmark, a key update to the worldwide standard for measuring graphics performance. We've added support for Microsoft Windows 11, which is now being installed by OEMs on most new PCs. The new benchmark also offers enhanced GUI support for 4K, making it clearer when 3840x2160 resolution has been selected and indicating in results files that a benchmark was run at 4K resolution.

SPEC Machine Learning Committee to Develop Vendor-Agnostic Benchmark to Measure End-to-End Performance for Machine Learning Training and Inference Tasks

By Arthur Kang, SPEC ML Committee Chair

The SPEC Open Systems Group (OSG) reached an important milestone this year with the establishment of the Machine Learning Committee, which is developing practical methodologies for benchmarking artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) performance in the context of real-world platforms and environments.

SPEChpc Releases New v1.1 Benchmark

By Mathew Colgrove, SPEC High Performance Group Release Manager

With the release of the SPEChpc™ 2021 v1.0 benchmark last October, we have seen a great response from the HPC community. More than 100 institutions have received no-cost, non-commercial licenses, including large research facilities, universities, and even a few high schools. Beyond measuring performance of HPC systems, users have used SPEChpc benchmarks for educational purposes and installation testing, as well as to find node configuration issues, to name a few. Paraphrasing Nicole Hemsoth's The Next Platform article, SPEChpc is the benchmark real-world HPC deserves.

New SPECapc® for 3ds Max Benchmark for Systems Running Autodesk 3ds Max 2020

By Trey Morton, SPECapc Committee Chair

Earlier this year, the SPEC® Application Performance Committee (SPECapc) released the SPECapc for 3ds Max 2020 benchmark for systems running the latest version of Autodesk 3ds Max. This version of the SPEC benchmark replaces the SPECapc for 3ds Max 2015 benchmark.

With 3ds Max 2015 retired, the Autodesk community needs an industry-standard benchmark for an updated version of the application. 3ds Max is recognized as a key part of gaming, visualization, architecture, and many more industry segments, and SPEC realizes the importance of continuing to be able to measure performance without gaps. The SPECapc for 3ds Max 2020 benchmark is an interim release that enables the community to continue benchmarking their systems while SPEC launches a ground-up redesign of the benchmark software with new content. As with all of the SPECapc benchmarks, we are always on the lookout for community content that could be utilized in future versions of the benchmark.

SPEC Releases SPECviewperf 2020 v3.0 Benchmark, Adds Linux Edition

By Ross Cunniff, SPECgpc Chair

The SPEC® Graphics Performance Characterization (SPECgpc) group put tremendous effort into updating the SPECviewperf® benchmarks over the last year, and I'm excited today to discuss some of the new features. The SPECviewperf® 2020 v3.0 benchmark and the SPECviewperf® 2020 v3.0 Linux Edition benchmark - industry-standard benchmarks for measuring graphics performance based on professional applications - measure the 3D graphics performance of systems running under the OpenGL and DirectX application programming interfaces. The benchmark workloads, called viewsets, represent graphics content and behavior from actual workstation-class applications, without the need to install the applications themselves.

SPEC 2021 Year in Review

By David Reiner, President

As all of us at SPEC continue into a very busy 2022, I'd like to reflect on what we accomplished during 2021, which, despite the continued headwinds from the pandemic, was an exciting and productive year at SPEC.