Whetstone (benchmark)
Encyclopedia
The Whetstone benchmark is a synthetic benchmark
for evaluating the performance of computer
s. It was first written in Algol 60
in 1972 at the National Physical Laboratory
in the United Kingdom
and derived from statistics on program behaviour gathered on the KDF9
computer, using a modified version of its Whetstone Algol 60 compiler. The program's behavior replicated that of a typical KDF9 scientific program and was designed to defeat compiler optimizations that would have adversely affected the accuracy of this model. The Whetstone Compiler was built at the Atomic Power Division of the English Electric
Company in Whetstone, Leicestershire
, England, hence its name. The original Algol 60 program has recently been run under the Whetstone compiler, for the first time since the last KDF9 was shut down in 1980, but now executed by a KDF9 emulator.
The Fortran
version, which became the first general purpose benchmark that set industry standards of computer system performance, was developed by Harold Curnow of HM Treasury
Technical Support Unit (TSU – later part of Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency or CCTA). Further development was carried out by Roy Longbottom, also of TSU/CCTA, who became the official design authority.
The Whetstone benchmark originally measured computing power in units of kilo-Whetstone Instructions Per Second (kWIPS). This was later changed to Millions of Whetstone Instructions Per Second (MWIPS). The original results on numerous minicomputers, mainframes and supercomputers are available in Whetstone Benchmark History and Results. This also shows original system costs and year of manufacture. For comparison purposes, a summary of results on PCs is also provided, including a table showing the relative efficiency of various programming languages. Detailed results on PCs are also available, showing speeds of the different test functions.
Source code and pre-compiled versions for PCs in C
/C++
, Basic
, Visual Basic
, Fortran
and Java
are available in Roy Longbottom's PC Benchmark Collection (Free). Compiled codes include those to run via DOS
, OS/2
plus 32 bit and 64 bit Windows
.
The Whetstone benchmark primarily measures the floating-point arithmetic performance. A similar benchmark for integer and string operations is the Dhrystone
.
Benchmark (computing)
In computing, a benchmark is the act of running a computer program, a set of programs, or other operations, in order to assess the relative performance of an object, normally by running a number of standard tests and trials against it...
for evaluating the performance of computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
s. It was first written in Algol 60
ALGOL 60
ALGOL 60 is a member of the ALGOL family of computer programming languages. It gave rise to many other programming languages, including BCPL, B, Pascal, Simula, C, and many others. ALGOL 58 introduced code blocks and the begin and end pairs for delimiting them...
in 1972 at the National Physical Laboratory
National Physical Laboratory, UK
The National Physical Laboratory is the national measurement standards laboratory for the United Kingdom, based at Bushy Park in Teddington, London, England. It is the largest applied physics organisation in the UK.-Description:...
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and derived from statistics on program behaviour gathered on the KDF9
English Electric KDF9
KDF9 was an early British computer designed and built by English Electric, later English Electric Leo Marconi, EELM, later still incorporated into ICL. It first came into service in 1964 and was still in use in 1980 in at least one installation...
computer, using a modified version of its Whetstone Algol 60 compiler. The program's behavior replicated that of a typical KDF9 scientific program and was designed to defeat compiler optimizations that would have adversely affected the accuracy of this model. The Whetstone Compiler was built at the Atomic Power Division of the English Electric
English Electric
English Electric was a British industrial manufacturer. Founded in 1918, it initially specialised in industrial electric motors and transformers...
Company in Whetstone, Leicestershire
Whetstone, Leicestershire
Whetstone is a village and civil parish in the Blaby district of Leicestershire, England. It has a population of 6,000 and largely acts as a commuter village for Leicester, five miles to the north...
, England, hence its name. The original Algol 60 program has recently been run under the Whetstone compiler, for the first time since the last KDF9 was shut down in 1980, but now executed by a KDF9 emulator.
The Fortran
Fortran
Fortran is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing...
version, which became the first general purpose benchmark that set industry standards of computer system performance, was developed by Harold Curnow of HM Treasury
HM Treasury
HM Treasury, in full Her Majesty's Treasury, informally The Treasury, is the United Kingdom government department responsible for developing and executing the British government's public finance policy and economic policy...
Technical Support Unit (TSU – later part of Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency or CCTA). Further development was carried out by Roy Longbottom, also of TSU/CCTA, who became the official design authority.
The Whetstone benchmark originally measured computing power in units of kilo-Whetstone Instructions Per Second (kWIPS). This was later changed to Millions of Whetstone Instructions Per Second (MWIPS). The original results on numerous minicomputers, mainframes and supercomputers are available in Whetstone Benchmark History and Results. This also shows original system costs and year of manufacture. For comparison purposes, a summary of results on PCs is also provided, including a table showing the relative efficiency of various programming languages. Detailed results on PCs are also available, showing speeds of the different test functions.
Source code and pre-compiled versions for PCs in C
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
/C++
C++
C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...
, Basic
BASIC
BASIC is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use - the name is an acronym from Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code....
, Visual Basic
Visual Basic
Visual Basic is the third-generation event-driven programming language and integrated development environment from Microsoft for its COM programming model...
, Fortran
Fortran
Fortran is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing...
and Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
are available in Roy Longbottom's PC Benchmark Collection (Free). Compiled codes include those to run via DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
, OS/2
OS/2
OS/2 is a computer operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively. The name stands for "Operating System/2," because it was introduced as part of the same generation change release as IBM's "Personal System/2 " line of second-generation personal...
plus 32 bit and 64 bit Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
.
The Whetstone benchmark primarily measures the floating-point arithmetic performance. A similar benchmark for integer and string operations is the Dhrystone
Dhrystone
Dhrystone is a synthetic computing benchmark program developed in 1984 by Reinhold P. Weicker intended to be representative of system programming. The Dhrystone grew to become representative of general processor performance...
.
External links
- CCLRC: The Whetstone Benchmark
- Netlib repository of benchmark source code (see also NetlibNetlibNetlib is a repository of software for scientific computing maintained by AT&T, Bell Laboratories, the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Netlib comprises a large number of separate programs and libraries...
) - Whetstone Algol Revisited, or Confessions of a compiler writer PDF file