Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 13.14
The Hardware System provides essential information on
interrupts, direct memory access (DMA) channels, port settings, and the
available memory resources
Processor Benchmark
The Processor Benchmark performs continuous and complex calculations based
on the industry standard
Whetstone
and
Dhrystone
algorithms. These provide
a measure of the performance of a CPU when carrying out floating point and
integer arithmetic operations, respectively.
The Whetstone benchmarking algorithm was created by Harold Curnow in
1972 and optimized for floating point arithmetic. The Dhrystone benchmarking
algorithm is the standard for measuring integer performance. This was devel-
oped by Reinhold P. Weicker and is similar to the Whetstone algorithm but
without floating point arithmetic. As well as producing a speed rating in terms
of MHz, Fresh Diagnose produces benchmarks expressed in terms of Millions
of Whetstone Instructions Per Second (MWIPS) and Millions of Dhrystone
Instructions Per Second (MDIPS).
CPU Multimedia Benchmark
This benchmark performs a set of Intel SSE, SSE2, x87, and AMD 3DNow!
instructions including binary and logical operations. When carrying out CPU
benchmarking it is important to be aware that the results of measurements will
often be different for identical processors operating with different operating
systems. This is due to minor differences in the way that individual operating
systems support a processor's instruction set. Generally (but not in every case)
the later operating systems will yield faster benchmark results (Figure 13.15).
Memory Benchmark
This benchmark performs a set of memory operations (at least 100 KB) includ-
ing array assignment and splitting. The measurement produces memory speeds
