SPEC/HPG hardware acceleration benchmark adds
suite to measure OpenMP application performance
New SPEC ACCEL 1.2 allows users to modify directives
in the OpenACC and OpenMP suites for measuring peak performance
based on real-world applications
GAINESVILLE, Va., June 27, 2017 — SPEC"s
High-Performance Group (SPEC/HPG) has released a new version of
its SPEC ACCEL software that adds a suite of OpenMP applications
for measuring the performance of systems using hardware accelerator
devices and supporting software. SPEC ACCEL also measures performance
for computationally intensive parallel applications running under the OpenCL and OpenACC programming models.
Broader benchmarking scope
SPEC ACCEL 1.2 exercises the performance of the accelerator, host
CPU, memory transfer between host and accelerator, support libraries
and drivers, and compilers. The new OpenMP suite contains the same
applications and datasets as the OpenACC suite, but results are not directly
comparable, since the benchmarks use different reference systems and in
some cases different parallelization constructs.
Vendors can use SPEC ACCEL to improve performance of systems that
include accelerator devices. Users can employ the software to make buying
and configuration decisions. Researchers can use it to assess the ramifications
of new technologies on performance.
"The OpenMP application benchmarks are the first of their kind
and now give our customers the opportunity to compare hardware
configurations based on the most popular open-programming models,"
says Guido Juckeland, SPEC/HPG vice chair. "We look forward to a
wide variety of SPEC ACCEL result submissions on the SPEC website and
a number of research papers comparing various optimization settings on
multiple platforms."
SPEC ACCEL 1.2 comprises 19 application benchmarks running under
OpenCL and 15 each under OpenACC and OpenMP. The OpenCL suite is
derived from the Parboil benchmark developed by the IMPACT Research
Group of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Rodinia
benchmark from the University of Virginia. The OpenACC and OpenMP
suites include tests from NAS Parallel Benchmarks (NPB), SPEC OMP2012, and others derived from high-performance
computing (HPC) applications.
SPEC ACCEL 1.2 also contains the latest version of SPEC PTDaemon, which
enables power measurements while the benchmark is running, providing a
separate metric for energy efficiency.
SPEC/HPG members involved in SPEC ACCEL 1.2 development include AMD,
HPE, IBM, Intel, Nvidia and Oracle. SPEC/HPG Associates include Argonne
National Laboratory; Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf; Indiana
University; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; RWTH Aachen University;
Technische Universitat Dresden, ZIH; and University of Delaware.
Available immediately
SPEC ACCEL 1.2 is available for immediate download on the SPEC website. The benchmark suite is $2,000 for non-members and
$800 for qualified non-profit and not-for-profit organizations. Existing
license holders receive a free upgrade. For more information, visit http://www.spec.org/accel/.
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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