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We have a new XPRTs around the world infographic!

If you’ve followed the XPRT blog for a while, you know that we occasionally update the community on some of the reach metrics we track by publishing a new version of the “XPRTs around the world” infographic. The metrics we track include completed test runs, benchmark downloads, and mentions of the XPRTs in advertisements, articles, and tech reviews. Gathering this information gives us insight into how many people are using the XPRT tools, and updating the infographic helps readers and community members see the impact the XPRTs are having around the world.

This week, we published a new infographic, which includes the following highlights:

  • The XPRTs have been mentioned more than 19,500 times on over 4,000 unique sites.
  • Those mentions include more than 12,300 articles and reviews.
  • Users have tested gear with the XPRTs in over 924 cities located in 81 countries on six continents. New cities of note include Dhaka, Bangladesh; Zagreb, Croatia; Hamilton, New Zealand; and Medina, Saudi Arabia.

In addition to the reach metrics we mention above, the XPRTs have now delivered more than 1,330,000 real-world results! We’re grateful for everyone who’s helped us get this far. Your participation is vital to our achieving our goal: to provide benchmark tools that are reliable, relevant, and easy to use.

Justin

Let us know if you encounter this Adobe PSE 2020 issue with HDXPRT 4

Last week, a member of the tech press let us know that they encountered an error while preparing a system for HDXPRT 4 testing. Specifically, while attempting to install the trial version of Adobe Photoshop Elements (PSE) 2020, they encountered the following error:

Update Required

Your browser or operating system is no longer supported. You may need to install the latest updates to your operating system.

They were working with an MSI Sword 15 A12UE, which had all the latest Windows 11 and Microsoft Edge updates, and they were able to complete installation and testing on other Windows 11 systems in their lab. This eliminates compatibility between the Adobe PSE 2020 installer package and Windows 11 or Microsoft Edge as the issue.

We do not have the same MSI Sword system in our lab, but we tried to replicate the issue by performing the HDXPRT 4 installation and setup process on a Dell G7 15 laptop running on an up-to-date version of Windows 11 (22H2, 22621.521). We successfully installed Adobe PSE 2020 and completed several HDXPRT 4 iterations.

The error this user encountered could be specific to their system or situation. However, we would like to know if other HDXPRT 4 users have run into the same issue. If you’ve experienced this issue in your testing, please contact us. We may be able to identify and publish a solution. 

Justin

On track for a CloudXPRT web microservices update this fall

Last month, we announced that we’re working on an updated CloudXPRT web microservices test package. The purpose of the update is to fix installation failures on Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure, and ensure that the web microservices workload works on Ubuntu 22.04, using updated software components such as Kubernetes v1.23.7, Kubespray v2.18.1, and Kubernetes Metrics Server v1. The update also incorporates some additional minor script changes.

We are still testing the updated test package with on-premises hardware and Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure configurations. So far, testing is progressing well, and we feel increasingly confident that we will be able to release the updated test package soon. We would like to share a more concrete release schedule, but because of the complexity of the workload and the CSP platforms involved, we are waiting until we are certain that everything is ready to go.

The name of the updated package will be CloudXPRT v1.2, and it will include only the updated v1.2 test harness and the updated web microservices workload. It will not include the data analytics workload. As we stated in last month’s blog, we plan to publish the updated web microservices package, and see what kind of interest we receive from users about a possible refresh of the v1.1 data analytics workload. For now, the v1.1 data analytics workload will continue to be available via CloudXPRT.com for some time to serve as a reference resource for users that have worked with the package in the past.

As soon as possible, we’ll provide more information about the CloudXPRT v1.2 release date here in the blog. If you have any questions about the update or CloudXPRT in general, please feel free to contact us!

Justin

An update on Chrome OS XPRT benchmark development

In July, we discussed the Chrome OS team’s decision to end support for Chrome apps, and how that will prevent us from publishing any future fixes or updates for CrXPRT 2. We also announced our goal of beginning development of an all-new Chrome OS XPRT benchmark by the end of this year. While we are actively discussing this benchmark and researching workload technologies and scenarios, we don’t foresee releasing a preview build this year.

The good news is that, in spite of a lack of formal support from the Chrome OS team, the CrXPRT 2 performance and battery life tests currently run without any known issues. We continue to monitor the status of CrXPRT and will inform our blog readers of any significant changes.

If you have any questions about CrXPRT, or ideas about the types of features or workloads you’d like to see in a new Chrome OS benchmark, please let us know!

Justin

The WebXPRT 4 results calculation white paper is now available

Last week, we published the Exploring WebXPRT 4 white paper. The paper describes the design and structure of WebXPRT 4, including detailed information about the benchmark’s harness, HTML5 and WebAssembly capability checks, and the structure of the performance test workloads. This week, to help WebXPRT 4 testers understand how the benchmark calculates results, we’ve published the WebXPRT 4 results calculation and confidence interval white paper.

The white paper explains the WebXPRT 4 confidence interval and how it differs from typical benchmark variability, and the formulas the benchmark uses to calculate the individual workload scenario scores and overall score. The paper also provides an overview of the statistical techniques WebXPRT uses to translate raw timings into scores.

To supplement the white paper’s discussion of the results calculation process, we’ve also published a results calculation spreadsheet that shows the raw data from a sample test run and reproduces the calculations WebXPRT uses to produce workload scores and the overall score.

The paper is available on WebXPRT.com and on our XPRT white papers page. If you have any questions about the WebXPRT results calculation process, please let us know!

Justin

The Exploring WebXPRT 4 white paper is now available

This week, we published the Exploring WebXPRT 4 white paper. It describes the design and structure of WebXPRT 4, including detailed information about the benchmark’s harness, HTML5 and WebAssembly (WASM) capability checks, and changes we’ve made to the structure of the performance test workloads. We explain the benchmark’s scoring methodology, how to automate tests, and how to submit results for publication. The white paper also includes information about the third-party functions and libraries that WebXPRT 4 uses during the HTML5 and WASM capability checks and performance workloads.

The Exploring WebXPRT 4 white paper promotes the high level of transparency and disclosure that is a core value of the BenchmarkXPRT Development Community. We’ve always believed that transparency builds trust, and trust is essential for a healthy benchmarking community. That’s why we involve community members in the benchmark development process and disclose how we build our benchmarks and how they work.

You can find the paper on WebXPRT.com and our XPRT white papers page. If you have any questions about WebXPRT 4, please let us know, and be sure to check out our other XPRT white papers.

Justin

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