Author Archives: Eric Hale

TouchXPRT and WebXPRT benchmarks now available!

on February 28, 2013

The BenchmarkXPRT Development Community, which Principled Technologies (PT) administers, is pleased to announce the release of the TouchXPRT 2013 and WebXPRT 2013 benchmarks.

TouchXPRT 2013 is a benchmark for evaluating the capabilities of Windows 8 and Windows RT devices. TouchXPRT runs tests based on five user scenarios (Beautify photo album, Prepare photos for sharing, Convert videos for sharing, Export podcast to MP3, and Create slideshow from photos) and produces results for each of the five test scenarios plus an overall score.

WebXPRT 2013 is a browser-based multi-platform benchmark that uses representative Web-user scenarios to compare the performance of almost any Web-enabled device. It contains four HTML5- and JavaScript-based workloads: Photo Effects, Face Detect, Stocks Dashboard, and Offline Notes. Because the workloads are all HMTL5 based, they run on a wide variety of devices and operating systems—from iPad tablets to Android phones to Windows computers. In addition to scores, WebXPRT 2013 gives a report on the HTML5 capabilities of a device.

The benchmarks are now available to all from http://www.TouchXPRT.com andhttp://www.WebXPRT.com. Prior to today’s public release, the benchmarks were available exclusively to members of the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community and were used in multiple media reviews to evaluate a wide range of devices.

Members of the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community significantly influenced the development of the benchmarks by providing feedback on the initial design specifications and participating in beta testing. To learn how you can participate in the development of future versions of our benchmarks and stay up to date on the latest information, visit our Web site or look for us on Facebook and Twitter.

About the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community
The BenchmarkXPRT Development Community is a forum through which interested parties can contribute to the ongoing evolution of the BenchmarkXPRT suite of benchmarks. Community members play a vital role in ensuring that benchmarks such as HDXPRT, TouchXPRT, and WebXPRT incorporate the latest in the field of user-experience benchmarking and meet the needs and interests of a range of individuals and organizations.

About Principled Technologies, Inc.
Principled Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of fact-based marketing and technology assessment services. The founders, Mark Van Name and Bill Catchings, have worked together in technology assessment for over 25 years. As journalists, they published over a thousand articles on a wide array of technology subjects. They created and led the Ziff-Davis Benchmark Operation, which developed such industry-standard benchmarks as Ziff Davis Media’s Winstone and WebBench. They have also co-founded or led several other technology testing firms, including ZD Labs, eTesting Labs, and VeriTest.

Principled Technologies, Inc. is located in Durham, North Carolina, USA. For more information, please visit http://www.principledtechnologies.com.

Company Contact
Eric Hale
Principled Technologies, Inc.
1007 Slater Road
Suite 300
Durham, NC 27703
ehale@principledtechnologies.com
www.principledtechnologies.com

New benchmark to evaluate smartphone performance

By Eric Hale

on February 25, 2013

Principled Technologies (PT) and the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community, which PT administers, are pleased to announce a new a benchmark, PhoneXPRT 2013.

This benchmark, which the community will be developing, will evaluate the capabilities of small form-factor devices. “We’re excited to be announcing this exciting new initiative during Mobile World Congress 2013,” said Bill Catchings, Chief Technology Officer of PT. “As popular as smartphones already are, the market is still developing, and today’s offerings differ widely in performance and responsiveness. The new benchmark will provide a fair and consistent basis for comparing the growing range of smartphones on the market.”

Community feedback will shape the new benchmark. Like all the BenchmarkXPRT benchmarks, PhoneXPRT 2013 will be based on real-world user scenarios and provide user-relevant metrics and results. The first operating system it will support is Android, but the intent is to support additional operating systems in the future.

“We invite all interested parties to participate in the creation, evaluation, and testing of this new benchmark,” Catchings said. Anyone can participate in the Development program by registering as a member of the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community. Community members have the opportunity to help shape future versions of the benchmarks. To register for the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community and begin participating in the creation process of the new benchmark, go to http://www.benchmarkxprt.com and follow the instructions in the ‘Join us’ section of the right-hand navigation menu.

To see the latest information on the benchmark’s development, visit http://www.phonexprt.com.

About Principled Technologies, Inc.
Principled Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of fact-based marketing and technology assessment services. The founders, Mark Van Name and Bill Catchings, have worked together in technology assessment for over 25 years. As journalists, they published over a thousand articles on a wide array of technology subjects. They created and led the Ziff-Davis Benchmark Operation, which developed such industry-standard benchmarks as Ziff Davis Media’s Winstone and WebBench. They have also co-founded or led several other technology firms including ZD Labs, eTesting Labs, and VeriTest.

Principled Technologies, Inc. is located in Durham, North Carolina, USA. For more information, please visit http://www.principledtechnologies.com.

Company Contact
Eric Hale
Principled Technologies, Inc.
1007 Slater Road
Suite 300
Durham, NC 27703
ehale@principledtechnologies.com
www.principledtechnologies.com

Posted in BenchmarkXPRT Press Releases, MobileXPRT Press Releases, Press Releases |

The HDXPRT 2013 RFC is here

By Eric Hale

on February 14, 2013

We released the RFC, or request for comments, for HDXPRT 2013 yesterday. Our major objective with the RFC is to get your feedback. Your feedback played an important part in developing HDXPRT 2012, and we are hoping it plays an even larger role in developing HDXPRT 2013.

The RFC includes our thoughts and ideas for the design of HDXPRT 2013 based on the many conversations we’ve had over the six months since the current version of HDXPRT debuted. Indeed, during the last few weeks, we shared some of the feedback we received during and after the Webinar in January.

At this point, nothing is written in stone. Now is the time to let us know where you agree and where you disagree. For example, the current proposal drops support for Windows 7. Do you have an opinion about this? Let us know.

The RFC is available for Development Community members at http://www.principledtechnologies.com/hdxprt/forum/hdxprt2013RFC.php. Our goal is to get your feedback by March 6. We’d like as much of the feedback as possible to appear on the forums to help stimulate discussion. However, if you prefer to send in your comments via email, please send them to BenchmarkXPRTsupport@hdxprt.com.

Of course, you can send comments to us any time, and you don’t have to limit yourself to HDXPRT! Do you have thoughts about TouchXPRT or WebXPRT? They are both moving rapidly toward their official releases. Do you have thoughts about other benchmarks we should consider developing? Send those, too!

Eric

Comment on this post in the forums

Posted in Collaborative benchmark development, HDXPRT 2013, HDXPRT 2013 RFC, HDXPRT Development Community benefits, HDXPRT development process |

BenchmarkXPRT Development Community Releases Source Code for HDXPRT 2012

By Eric Hale

on February 7, 2013

The BenchmarkXPRT Development Community, which Principled Technologies (PT) administers, is pleased to announce the availability of the source code for the HDXPRT 2012 performance test tool.

HDXPRT 2012 is a benchmark for evaluating the capabilities of PCs in performing a wide variety of common consumer digital media tasks. Members of the development community have significantly influenced this version of the benchmark by helping to prepare its design specification and by beta-testing release candidates.

The release of the source code for a widely available application-based benchmark such as HDXPRT marks a milestone in the benchmark ecosystem. By opening the benchmark’s source code to its members, the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community is hoping to increase the transparency of the benchmarking process and to stimulate the participation of industry players and the public in the definition, development, understanding, and auditing of the benchmark.

Community members can download the benchmark’s source code directly from the official benchmark Web site, http://www.hdxprt.com. Any non-members who would like the source code can join the community for a very modest fee by going to http://www.benchmarkxprt.com.

In addition to downloading the source code of the current version of the tool, BenchmarkXPRT Development Community members can influence the design of future versions of HDXPRT and other benchmarks. They can even participate in the coding and development of these benchmarks. Membership in the community also keeps you up to date on the latest information. To learn more, visit the official BenchmarkXPRT Development Community Web site,http://www.benchmarkxprt.com, and look for the community’s presence on Facebook and Twitter.

About HDXPRT
HDXPRT, the High Definition Experience & Performance Ratings Test, is a software tool for evaluating the capabilities of PCs at handling real-world digital media scenarios involving common consumer applications. It
includes tests for popular consumer usage models such as high-definition video transcoding, and high dynamic range
(HDR) photo manipulation.

About the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community BenchmarkXPRT Development Community is a forum through which interested parties can contribute to the ongoing evolution of the BenchmarkXPRT suite of benchmarks. Community members play a vital role in ensuring that benchmarks such as HDXPRT, TouchXPRT, and WebXPRT incorporate the latest in the field of user-experience benchmarking and meet the needs and interests of a range of individuals and organizations.

Principled Technologies, Inc. is located in Durham, North Carolina, USA. For more information, please visit http://www.principledtechnologies.com.

Company Contact
Eric Hale
Principled Technologies, Inc.
1007 Slater Road
Suite 300
Durham, NC 27703
ehale@principledtechnologies.com
www.principledtechnologies.com

Posted in BenchmarkXPRT Press Releases, HDXPRT Press Releases, Press Releases |

Straight from the source

By Eric Hale

on February 7, 2013

One of the pillars of our community model of benchmark development is making the source available. As we’ve said many times, we believe that doing so leads to better benchmarks.

Today we released the source for HDXPRT 2012. As with previous versions of HDXPRT, the source is available only to community members, not to the general public. We apologize that it has taken so long. HDXPRT is complicated to build, and we wanted to have a simpler and more robust build process before we made the source available.

The source allows you to examine how HDXPRT is implemented and to try some experiments of your own. Because of the size of HDXPRT 2012, the source package does not include the applications or the data files for the workloads. By including only the benchmark source code and associated files, we could keep the package small enough to download. If you want to try some changes for experiments and test them, all you need to do is install HDXPRT 2012 from the distribution DVDs. The compilation instructions will tell you how to copy your modified executables over the shipping versions.

Community members can get instructions on how to download the source code here (registration required).

If you create something interesting while you’re experimenting, let us know! We’d love to have the community consider it for HDXPRT 2013.

Speaking of the community, we’ve sent T-shirts to all community members who’ve supplied their up-to-date mailing address. If you’re a community member who wants a shirt but hasn’t yet let us know, please e-mail benchmarkxprtsupport@principledtechnologies.com with your mailing address by February 15th.

Eric

Comment on this post in the forums

Posted in Collaborative benchmark development, HDXPRT, HDXPRT Development Community benefits, HDXPRT source code |

Keep them coming!

By Eric Hale

on January 31, 2013

Questions and comments have continued to come in since the Webinar last week. Here are a few of them:

How long are results valid? For a reviewer like us, we need to know that we can reuse results for a reasonable length of time. There is a tension between keeping results stable and keeping the benchmark current enough for the results to be relevant. Historically, HDXPRT allowed at least a year between releases. Based on the feedback we’ve received, a year seems like a reasonable length of time.
Is HDXPRT command line operable? (asked by a community member with a scripted suite of tests) HDXPRT 2012 is not, but we will consider adding a command line interface for HDXPRT 2013. While most casual users don’t need a command line interface, it could be very valuable to those of us using HDXPRT in labs.
I would be hesitant to overemphasize the running time of HDXPRT. The more applications it runs, the more it can differentiate things and the more interesting it is to those of us who run it at a professional level. If I could say “This gives a complete overview of the performance of this system,” that would actually save time. This comment was a surprise, given the amount of feedback we received saying that HDXPRT was too large. However, this gets to the heart of why we all need to be careful as we consider which applications to include in HDXPRT 2013.

If you had to miss the Webinar, it’s available at the BenchmarkXPRT 2013 Webinars page.

We’re planning to release the HDXPRT 2013 RFC next week. We’re looking forward to your comments.

Eric

Comment on this post in the forums

Posted in Benchmark metrics, Benchmarking, HDXPRT, HDXPRT workloads |

Author Archives: Eric Hale

TouchXPRT and WebXPRT benchmarks now available!

New benchmark to evaluate smartphone performance

The HDXPRT 2013 RFC is here

BenchmarkXPRT Development Community Releases Source Code for HDXPRT 2012

The BenchmarkXPRT Development Community, which Principled Technologies (PT) administers, is pleased to announce the availability of the source code for the HDXPRT 2012 performance test tool.

Straight from the source

Keep them coming!

Check out the other XPRTs: