Abstract

In the past three years, the Perfect Benchmark TM Suite has evolved from a supercomputer performance evaluation plan, presented by Kuck and Sameh at the 1987 International Conference on Supercomputing, to a vigorous international activity. This paper surveys the current state of supercomputer performance evaluation with particular focus on the methodology adopted by the Perfect effort. While there has been considerable success in achieving the goals of the plan, some issues remain unresolved, and new questions have surfaced. 1 Introduction During the four decades since the invention of the transistor, performance increases in computers have been attributable, in large part, to increases in hardware speed, averaging an order of magnitude every seven years. In recent years, the progress of hardware technology has begun to slow as certain fundamental limits (ie. the speed of light and the width of the atom) have been approached. In an effort to sustain increases in the peak speed of ne...

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