WARRENTON, — The
Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) is expanding its benchmarks for high performance computers by comparing the power use and performance of workstations.
The nonprofit's Graphics and Workstation Performance Group is working on the benchmark for performance in relation to power consumption, incorporating current benchmarks for 3D graphics as well as looking at workloads for rendering, financial modeling, video encoding and other processes.
AMD, Dell, Fujitsu Siemens, HP, Intel, NVIDIA and Sun Microsystems are participating in the development, and the SPEC plans to have the benchmark available by summer. The group is also taking input from the U.S. EPA, which it will submit the benchmark to for use in the latest Energy Star rating for workstations.
"We are pleased to be working with (the Graphics and Workstation Performance Group) to give vendors and customers a standardized tool that adds energy efficiency to the list of metrics buyers can use to evaluate workstations," Katharine Kaplan, EPA program manager, Energy Star IT equipment, said in a statement.
The SPEC, founded in 1988, is made up of more than 80 member organizations, including hardware and software vendors, educational institutes, research groups and government agencies.
