JVM Client98 Help

Using the Benchmarks Main window

The three diagrams below depict the main window of the benchmark suite running under appletviewer on Solaris, Netscape Communicator on Solaris, and Microsoft Internet Explorer on Windows 95.

Help Button

The Help Button displays context sensitive help in a second browser window, or on the Java console.

Status Indicator

The benchmark displays a visible status indicator of whether the driver is ready for new commands, currently running a benchmark, or whether the last benchmark terminated with an error.

The error indicator is displayed if the last benchmark you ran generated incorrect results.Possible causes of errors include insufficient memory, a damaged installation of the SPEC JVM Client98 suite, and a bug in the Java Virtual Machine. See Common Problems for more information.

If a benchmark is running, you cannot start another benchmark or select different benchmarks. You can do other operations like editing the configuration reporting fields (Setup Button), however this would be unwise if you care about the execution time of the benchmarks since any such actions you perform will consume resources and compete with the benchmarks.

Status Display Area

The next level of detailed information about benchmark execution is displayed in the status area just below the status indicator. This scrolling textfield displays summary status information from the benchmark driver and the benchmarks. For example, in the diagram at left, it displays the execution time of a (valid) run of the _202_jess benchmark, and a message that all selected benchmarks (in this case a single benchmark) have completed.

Edit Configuration Description (Setup)

The Setup Button displays a multi-paned window to edit the reporting fields describing your test configuration. It is important to get this information correct as it will be printed on the results reporting page. You can make your job entering this information easier by preparing appropriate configuration property files. You must press the Setup Button and review this information before the program will allow you to send results of the benchmark run.

Select Benchmarks

The selection list on the left and the Select All Button are used to choose which benchmarks to run. See selecting benchmarks.

Problem Size

The control shown to the left selects the problem size to run. Reportable SPEC results must be run with a problem size of 100. Problem size 10 requires approximately one tenth the execution time, and is provided for test and research purposes only. Problem size 1 is intended as a quick checkout of the benchmark programs on a JVM. It runs the minimum amount of work necessary to verify that the program runs.

Console Output

The Console On Button displays the benchmark console window and the Console Off Button hides it. The use of the console can have performance implications, and there are additional choices provided through user property file settings. See more information.

Benchmark Execution Buttons

• Start - Begins a single execution of benchmark(s)
• Autorun - Begins multiple executions of benchmark(s)
• Stop - Stops execution of benchmark(s)
• Quit - Terminates entire JVM Client98 program, when running in application mode.

Report Button

The Report button shows the report window from where you may review and mail benchmark results. This button will not operate until you have pressed the Setup button, reviewed the configuration information, and pressed OK.

Next topic: Reporting Results