Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation

SPEC announces new president and future goals

Walter Bays steps down after presiding over 12 years of growth; David Reiner, a SPEC 12-year veteran, takes the presidential reins; SPEC seeks to expand global reach and increase community engagement

GAINESVILLE, Va., March 15, 2017 - The Standard Performance Evaluation Corp. (SPEC) announces that Walter Bays has stepped down as the organization's president. He has been succeeded by David Reiner. SPEC also outlined near-term goals following its annual meeting.

12 years of achievements

Bays took over the SPEC presidency in November 2004. He presided over more than 12 years of expansion into new areas of benchmarking and new markets throughout the world. Major developments during his presidency included:

• Release of SPEC CPU2006, the worldwide standard for CPU performance evaluation. More than 43,000 results for the benchmark have been posted on the SPEC website and thousands of articles appear each year citing SPEC CPU2006 results.
• Introduction of new benchmarks addressing cloud, workstation, virtualization, parallel processing, Java, mail server, and web server performance.
• Establishment of the first SPEC benchmarks and tools for measuring energy efficiency. The Server Energy Rating Tool (SERT) is emerging as an international standard for energy conservation programs.
• Establishment of the SPEC Research Group (SPEC/RG), which unites industry and academia for collaborative research efforts in quantitative system evaluation and analysis.
• Growth of SPEC membership and benchmark use in emerging markets throughout the world. In 2016 SPEC conducted its first workshop in China and there was more media coverage for SPEC benchmarks in China than in any other nation in the world.
• Sponsorship of educational seminars, workshops and conferences such as the annual International Conference on Performance Engineering (ICPE).
• Awards programs that recognize individual contributions to performance and energy efficiency evaluation.

In addition to his presidency, Bays has held various SPEC Board of Directors positions and served as chair of the Java committee and Open Systems Group (OSG). He will remain on the SPEC Board as vice-treasurer and continue working with the SPECpower committee as a supporting contributor.

Honored to serve

David Reiner was first elected to the SPEC Board in January 2011. Since then he has served as a representative on the OSG steering committee, inspector of elections, and vice-treasurer. Over his 12 years as his company's primary representative to SPEC, he's been involved in several benchmark development groups, including SPEC CPU, SPECpower, Java, and multiple Graphics and Workstation Performance Group (SPEC/GWPG) committees.

"I'm honored to have been selected by the SPEC Board to serve as president," says Reiner. "I look forward to working with fellow Board members, the entire SPEC membership, and the computing community worldwide to continue providing benchmarks, tools, research and education for evaluating performance and energy consumption based on the latest applications and technology developments."

SPEC goals moving forward

Following its annual meeting, SPEC outlined its goals for the near future, which center on expanding SPEC's global reach and increasing community engagement.

"As a non-profit organization, SPEC is continually seeking ways to better serve the computing community," says Reiner. "This can manifest itself in many ways, including improving access to SPEC-produced content, making our benchmarks and tools easier to use, and reaching out to emerging technology regions worldwide. SPEC is excited to continue pursuing its mission, and invites collaboration from all corners of the benchmarking community."

About SPEC

SPEC is a non-profit organization that establishes, maintains and endorses standardized benchmarks and tools to evaluate performance and energy consumption for the newest generation of computing systems. Its membership comprises more than 120 leading computer hardware and software vendors, educational institutions, research organizations, and government agencies worldwide.

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