Category: TouchXPRT release cycle

An update on TouchXPRT 2016

on October 8, 2015

We’ll be releasing the MobileXPRT 2015 white paper tomorrow. It contains lots of information about MobileXPRT 2015 that you won’t find anywhere else. We hope you’ll find it very informative.

A couple of weeks ago, we released the design document for TouchXPRT 2016 (login required). This week, we put the first build of TouchXPRT 2016 into testing. It’s a Universal Windows app that runs on Windows 10 tablets, PCs, and phones. This means that TouchXPRT can now run on a wider variety of devices. However, it also means that TouchXPRT 2016 will not be backward compatible with Windows 8 and 8.1.

Given the current state of the SDKs, installing the test builds on phones is more complicated than we would like. We’re looking into ways to simplify the install before releasing the community preview. Testing on phones is particularly important because we made many of the UI changes to enable TouchXPRT to work acceptably on a small display.

We’ll keep you informed as testing proceeds. We’re hoping to release the community preview in the next couple of weeks.

Eric

Posted in Android, MobileXPRT, MobileXPRT 2015, TouchXPRT, TouchXPRT 2016, TouchXPRT release cycle, White papers, Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 |

The benefits of membership

By Eric Hale

on September 24, 2015

We have a couple of goodies for community members coming tomorrow.

The TouchXPRT 2016 design overview will tell you what we’re planning for the upcoming community preview. Thanks to everyone who’s contributed ideas. Let us know if the design overview omits anything you’d like to see in the benchmark.

The MobileXPRT 2015 source code and the instructions for building MobileXPRT 2015 will be available as well. Community members have access to the source for all the XPRT benchmarks. Making the source available is a pillar of the community model.

Look for the design overview and source code in the members’ area.

If you aren’t yet a member, this is a great time to join!

Eric

Posted in Collaborative benchmark development, MobileXPRT, MobileXPRT 2015, TouchXPRT, TouchXPRT 2016, TouchXPRT development process, TouchXPRT release cycle |

Something old, something new

By Eric Hale

on June 25, 2015

Last week, we talked about porting TouchXPRT 2014 to be a Windows 10 universal app. This will let it run on devices running Windows 10 and those running Windows 10 mobile.

We won’t be retiring TouchXPRT 2014 when we release the Windows 10 universal app version. Windows 8 doesn’t support Windows 10 universal apps, but Windows 10 will be able to run Windows 8 applications. This means you’ll also be continue to be able to use TouchXPRT 2014 to test Windows 8 based systems, as well as to compare Windows 8 and Windows 10 performance.

The results from TouchXPRT 2014 and the universal app version of the benchmark won’t be compatible. Even though the test scenarios will be the same, the porting process means that we have to change the APIs the benchmark is using and rebuild the benchmark with different tools.

We’re currently debating changing the way we version the benchmarks. As the number of versions of each benchmark increases, it may make sense to move away from year-based versioning. This will obviously affect what we call the new Windows 10 version of TouchXPRT. If you have any thoughts on this, please let us know!

Eric

Posted in BenchmarkXPRT development community, Collaborative benchmark development, Future of performance evaluation, TouchXPRT, TouchXPRT 2014, TouchXPRT release cycle, Windows 10, Windows 8 |

Hoping for a perfect 10

By Eric Hale

on June 18, 2015

As many of you know by now, the release date for Windows 10 is July 29. As we’ve said before, we are hard at work getting TouchXPRT ready for Windows 10. We’ve succeeded in building TouchXPRT as a universal app, and it’s now running on Windows 10. We haven’t successfully run it on Windows 10 Phone yet, but we’re working on that.

Unfortunately, I can’t share any performance data. The EULA for the current build of Windows 10 (build 10143 as I’m writing this) forbids publishing benchmark results without prior written approval from Microsoft.

We’ll continue testing and refining the porting of TouchXPRT to Windows 10. Our goal is to release it as a universal app to the community in July.

What are your experiences testing Windows 10? We’d love to hear about them!

Eric

Posted in Performance benchmarking, TouchXPRT, TouchXPRT development process, TouchXPRT release cycle, Windows 10 |

What are the implications?

By Eric Hale

on May 14, 2015

It’s been a couple of weeks since the Microsoft Build 2015 conference. There was a lot of interesting news and we are still digesting what it means for the XPRTS, especially TouchXPRT.

Rebuilding TouchXPRT as a universal app has the potential to let it run on a much wider range of devices: PCs, tablets, phones, even the Xbox. This would give TouchXPRT the kind of versatility that we enjoy in the Android space with MobileXPRT and BatteryXPRT.

It’s a lot more complicated to sort out the implications of Microsoft Continuum, which allows you to use your phone as a computer by connecting it to a docking station. The features of your device and the way the apps behave can change based on the display available. Connect the phone to a docking station and it behaves like a desktop. It also means that the hardware and features available on a device could potentially change while you are testing the device. TouchXPRT would need to detect any such changes and respond appropriately.

That’s a lot to think about, and we’ve been experimenting. If you have any thoughts about Windows 10 and benchmarking, please let us know.

Eric

Posted in BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android, MobileXPRT, TouchXPRT, TouchXPRT release cycle, Windows 10 |

TouchXPRT 2014 is here!

By Eric Hale

on May 16, 2014

Today we formally released TouchXPRT 2014. The BenchmarkXPRT Development Community has been using a community preview for several weeks now. Now that we’ve released the benchmark, anyone may freely use it.

Also, the TouchXPRT 2014 source will soon be available to the community. Remember that community members have access to the source, but it is not available to the general public.

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Posted in TouchXPRT, TouchXPRT 2014, TouchXPRT release cycle, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 |

Category: TouchXPRT release cycle

An update on TouchXPRT 2016

The benefits of membership

Something old, something new

Hoping for a perfect 10

What are the implications?

TouchXPRT 2014 is here!

Check out the other XPRTs: