SPECfp
SPECfp is a computer benchmark designed to test the floating-point performance of a computer. It is managed by the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation. SPECfp is the floating-point performance testing component of the SPEC CPU testing suit. The first standard SPECfp was released in 1989 as SPECfp89. Later it was replaced by SPECfp92, then SPECfp95, then SPECfp2000, then SPECfp2006, and finally SPECfp2017.
Background
SPEC CPU2017 is a suite of benchmark applications designed to test the CPU performance. The suite is composed of two sets of tests. The first being CINT which is for evaluating the CPU performance in integer operations. The second set is CFP which is for evaluating the CPU floating-point operations performance.The benchmark applications are programs that perform a strict set of operation that simulate real time situations, such as physical simulations, 3D graphics, and image processing. These applications are written in different programming languages, C, C++ and Fortran. Many SPECfp benchmark applications are derived from applications that are freely available to the public and each application is assigned a weight based on its importance.
To compute the SPECfp score, benchmark applications run on a reference machine and the time each application requires for completion is recorded as the reference time. When evaluating the performance of another machine, the benchmark application is run on that system and the time the application requires for completion is recorded. Then the ratio between the recorded time and the reference time is computed. The geometric mean of all the benchmark suite application ratios is then computed as the SPECfp score.
For example, 126.gcc application takes 1280 seconds to complete on the AlphaStation 200 4/100, while it takes 1700 seconds on the reference machine. So, the ratio is: 1700/1280 = 1.328, which implies that AlphaStation 200 4/100 is 32.8% faster than the reference machine in running the 126.gcc.