To evaluate two computer systems, a user can use a set of benchmarks—programs specifically chosen to measure performance. SPEC (System Performance Evaluation Cooperative) is an effort funded and supported by a number of computer vendors to create standard sets of benchmarks for modern computer systems. Two of the benchmarks are
- SPEC89, which focuses on processor performance and
- SPEC CPU2017, which consists of a set of 10 integer benchmarks (SPECspeed 2017 Integer) and 13 floating-point benchmarks (SPECspeed 2017 Floating Point).
- Execution time is the product of the three factors in this table: instruction count, clocks per instruction (CPI), and clock cycle time.
- SPECratio is simply the reference time, which is supplied by SPEC, divided by the measured execution time.
- The single number quoted as SPECspeed 2017 Integer is the geometric mean of the SPECratios.