Author Archives: Eric Hale

XPRT Women Code-a-Thon: Make your voice heard and win a cash prize

on March 1, 2016

DURHAM, NC –(Marketwired – March 01, 2016) – The BenchmarkXPRT Development Community and ChickTech are co-hosting the XPRT Women Code-a-Thon on March 12-13 in Seattle. The code-a-thon encourages Seattle software programmers to create small apps, or “workloads,” that mimic actions they take on their devices every day.

The top three participants or teams will receive cash prizes of up to $2,500, and all participants’ workloads will be considered for inclusion in future versions of the BenchmarkXPRT tools, or XPRTs. Any programmer familiar with Web development or Android development is encouraged to participate.

The XPRTs are apps that empower people all over the world to test how well devices handle everyday activities. They do this by running workloads that simulate common tasks – just like the workloads code-a-thon participants will be building.

“We want the XPRTs to reflect how people actually use their technology every day,” said Jennie Faries. Faries is one of the code-a-thon’s judges and a developer at Principled Technologies, which administers the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community. “By gaining the perspectives of this group of women, we’re making the tools stronger and more realistic. And when the tools we use to measure technology get better, the technology itself gets better too.”

All participants will receive a t-shirt and locally sourced breakfast and lunch on both days of the code-a-thon. The event will include time for networking and conclude with a talk from a special keynote speaker.

Add your voice to the tools that measure today’s hottest tech. Register today at facts.pt/XPRTcodeathon2016_registration, learn more at facts.pt/XPRT codeathon2016, and get all the details at facts.pt/XPRTcodeathon2016_FAQ.

About ChickTech

ChickTech envisions a safe, inclusive, and innovative technology future that includes equal pay, participation, and treatment of women. It is dedicated to retaining women in the technology workforce and increasing the number of women and girls pursuing technology-based careers. For more information, please visit http://chicktech.org

About the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community

The BenchmarkXPRT Development Community is a forum where registered members can contribute to the process of creating and improving the XPRTs. For more information, please visit http://www.principledtechnologies.com/benchmarkxprt

About Principled Technologies, Inc.

Principled Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of technology marketing and learning & development services. It administers the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community.

Principled Technologies, Inc. is located in Durham, North Carolina, in NC’s Research Triangle Park region. For more information, please visit www.PrincipledTechnologies.com.

Company Contact
Jennie Faries
Principled Technologies, Inc.
1007 Slater Road, Suite #300
Durham, NC 27703

Posted in Benchmarking, BenchmarkXPRT, BenchmarkXPRT development community, BenchmarkXPRT Press Releases, Collaborative benchmark development, Future of performance evaluation, MobileXPRT, Performance benchmarking, Press Releases, Principled Technologies, WebXPRT, XPRT Women Code-a-Thon |

A clarification from Brett Howse

By Eric Hale

on February 18, 2016

A couple of weeks ago, I described a conversation I had with Brett Howse of AnandTech. Brett was kind enough to send a clarification of some of his remarks, which he gave us permission to share with you.

“We are at a point in time where the technology that’s been called mobile since its inception is now at a point where it makes sense to compare it to the PC. However we struggle with the comparisons because the tools used to do the testing do not always perform the same workloads. This can be a major issue when a company uses a mobile workload, and a desktop workload, but then puts the resulting scores side by side, which can lead to misinformed conclusions. This is not only a CPU issue either, since on the graphics side we have OpenGL well established, along with DirectX, in the PC space, but our mobile workloads tend to rely on OpenGL ES, with less precision asked of the GPU, and GPUs designed around this. Getting two devices to run the same work is a major challenge, but one that has people asking what the results would be.”

I really appreciate Brett taking the time to respond. What are your thoughts in these issues? Please let us know!

Eric

Posted in AnandTech, Collaborative benchmark development, DirectX, Future of performance evaluation, Let us know your thoughts, Mobile devices, Open GL, Performance benchmarking, Performance of computing devices, Performance testing on tablets, What makes a good benchmark? |

BenchmarkXPRT Development Community releases TouchXPRT 2016, a benchmark for web-enabled devices

By Eric Hale

on February 16, 2016

DURHAM, NC–(Marketwired – February 16, 2016) – The BenchmarkXPRT Development Community, administered by Principled Technologies (PT), is pleased to announce the release of the TouchXPRT 2016 benchmark. TouchXPRT 2016 is a free benchmark tool for evaluating the performance of Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile devices. TouchXPRT 2016 runs tests based on five everyday scenarios (Beautify Photos, Blend Photos, Convert Videos for Sharing, Create Music Podcast, and Create Slideshow from Photos) and produces results for each of the five test scenarios plus an overall score.

To learn more about TouchXPRT 2016 and download the benchmark, please visit TouchXPRT.com. TouchXPRT 2016 is also available as a free Windows app in the Microsoft Store.

To learn more about and join the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community, go to www.BenchmarkXPRT.com.

About Principled Technologies, Inc.
Principled Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of technology marketing and learning & development services.

Principled Technologies, Inc. is located in Durham, North Carolina, in NC’s Research Triangle Park region. For more information, please visit www.PrincipledTechnologies.com.

Company Contact
Eric Hale
Principled Technologies, Inc.
1007 Slater Road, Suite #300
Durham, NC 27703

Posted in BenchmarkXPRT, BenchmarkXPRT development community, Press Releases, Principled Technologies, TouchXPRT, TouchXPRT 2016, TouchXPRT Press Releases, TouchXPRT release cycle |

TouchXPRT 2016 is here!

By Eric Hale

on February 15, 2016

Today, we released TouchXPRT 2016, the latest version of our tool for evaluating the performance of Windows devices. The BenchmarkXPRT Development Community has been using a community preview for several weeks, but now anyone can run TouchXPRT 2016 and publish their results.

TouchXPRT 2016 is compatible with systems running Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile. The new release includes the same performance workloads as TouchXPRT 2014, but with updated content and in the form of a Universal Windows app.

TouchXPRT 2016 is available at TouchXPRT.com and in the Windows App store.

After trying TouchXPRT 2016, please submit your scores and send any comments to BenchmarkXPRTsupport@principledtechnologies.com. We’re eager to find out how you’ll use this tool!

Posted in BenchmarkXPRT, BenchmarkXPRT development community, Collaborative benchmark development, Mobile devices, Performance benchmarking, TouchXPRT, TouchXPRT 2016, TouchXPRT development process, TouchXPRT release cycle, Windows 10 |

There’s a lot going on!

By Eric Hale

on February 11, 2016

We recently released TouchXPRT 2016 CP3 to the community. Testing has been going well, so we are releasing TouchXPRT 2016 to the general public on Monday. Thanks to everyone who tried out the previews!

Back in December, we told you about Nebula Wolf, a game-based workload developed by students at North Carolina State University. Now we have a new video that talks about the project and why efforts such as this one matter for the XPRTs. It’s a gorgeous video. I think it’s one of our best!

We’ve also created a page that talks about the Nebula Wolf project. And, of course, the page has links for the community members to see the game in action and check out the source code. If you’re not a member, it’s easy to join!

Our next community outreach effort will be the XPRT Women Code-a-Thon March 12-13 in Seattle. It’s a great chance to contribute to the XPRTs, hang with other coders, and maybe even win some prize money!

Later this month, Mark will be at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. If you’d like to chat with him, just let us know.

Finally, the XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight shines on the Google Pixel C this week.

That’s a lot, and there’s more to come!

Eric

Posted in Mobile World Congress, Nebula Wolf, North Carolina State University, TouchXPRT, TouchXPRT 2016, TouchXPRT development process, TouchXPRT release cycle, XPRT Weekly Tech Spotlight, XPRT Women Code-a-Thon |

North Carolina State University Senior Design Center students help the XPRTs

By Eric Hale

on February 9, 2016

DURHAM, NC –(Marketwired – February 09, 2016) – Principled Technologies (PT) today announced that it sponsored a senior project at the NC State University Computer Science Department Senior Design Center. PT asked a team of three seniors involved in this project to build a workload that reflected their interests. PT and the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community will evaluate adding this workload to existing BenchmarkXPRT tests in the future.

The BenchmarkXPRT tools, or XPRTs, are apps that empower people all over the world to measure how well their devices handle everyday activities. The XPRTs do this by running workloads that simulate common tasks — like editing photos and writing notes. To help make sure these workloads represent a wide range of viewpoints and ways of using devices, PT reached out to young adults to see what mattered to them.

Senior Design Center team members Rachel Ashburn, Brien Croft, and AJ Smith chose to create a mini-game that shows how well different devices handle games. Input like this potential workload helps better reflect how people really use their devices.

Learn more at: facts.pt/NebulaWolfTale

See why this matters to you at: facts.pt/NebulaWolf

About Principled Technologies, Inc.

Principled Technologies, Inc. is the leading provider of technology marketing and learning & development services. It administers the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community.

Principled Technologies, Inc. is located in Durham, North Carolina, in NC’s Research Triangle Park region. For more information, please visit www.PrincipledTechnologies.com.

About the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community

About the NC State University Computer Science Department Senior Design Center

The Senior Design Center brings together Computer Science seniors and sponsor companies to work on a specific project for a semester. This collaboration provides valuable hands-on experience for the students and important project results for the companies sponsoring them. For more information, please visit: https://sdc.csc.ncsu.edu

Company Contact
Eric Hale
Principled Technologies, Inc.
1007 Slater Road, Suite #300
Durham, NC 27703

Posted in Press Releases |

Author Archives: Eric Hale

XPRT Women Code-a-Thon: Make your voice heard and win a cash prize

A clarification from Brett Howse

BenchmarkXPRT Development Community releases TouchXPRT 2016, a benchmark for web-enabled devices

TouchXPRT 2016 is here!

There’s a lot going on!

North Carolina State University Senior Design Center students help the XPRTs

Check out the other XPRTs: