Category: Windows 8

Going Live

on February 21, 2013

As you may know, the Mobile World Congress (MWC) starts Monday in Barcelona. I really hate that I can’t go to this show and not only because I love Barcelona!

However, MWC seems like a good time to release TouchXPRT 2013 and WebXPRT 2013. We’re testing the final builds now, and plan to make them available to the public next week. If you’re not a community member and want to see what all the fuss is about before then, please join the community and check them out.

As we discussed in the Webinar back in January, we have been able to verify that the results from both benchmarks are in line with those of the community previews. That means that we don’t anticipate any problems comparing results from the CP1 versions with those from the release versions.

While TouchXPRT 2013 CP1 did not have a total score, based on your feedback, we added one in final version of TouchXPRT 2013.

I’ve included some comparison results from WebXPRT 2013 at the end of this post. As always, we would love to have any results you can share for either benchmark.

We’ve also been thinking about where to go next. We’re not ready to talk yet, but expect big news next week!

Bill

Device	WebXPRT 2013 Overall score
Nexus 7	201
Kindle Fire	95
iPad 2	52
iPad 4	181
Samsung Galaxy SIII	168
iPhone 5	167
iPad Mini	110

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Posted in TouchXPRT 2013 release, Trade Shows, WebXPRT 2013 release, Windows 8 |

There is such a thing as too much

By Eric Hale

on December 6, 2012

There’s been a lot of excitement about TouchXPRT recently. However, we haven’t been ignoring HDXPRT. On November 9, we released a patch that lets HDXPRT support Windows 8. We’ve now integrated the patch into HDXPRT2012, so all copies of HDXPRT 2012 going forward will install on Windows 8 without the need for a separate step.

As promised, we will be releasing the source code for HDXPRT 2012. We anticipate having it available for community members by December 14.

During the comment period for HDXPRT, this message came through loud and clear: HDXPRT 2012 is too big and takes too long to run. So we are working hard to find the best way to reduce the number of applications and scenarios. While we want to make the benchmark smaller and faster, we want to make sure that HDXPRT 2013 is comprehensive enough to provide useful performance metrics for the greatest number of people.

We’re working toward having an RFC in late January that will define a leaner, meaner HDXPRT 2013, and will reflect the other comments we have as received as well. If you have thoughts about which applications and scenarios are most important to you, please let us know.

In other news, CES is coming in January, and Principled Technologies will be there! Once again, Bill is hoping to meet with as many of you in the Development Community as possible. We’ll have a suite at the Hilton and would love for you to come, kick back, and talk about HDXPRT, TouchXPRT, the future of benchmarks, or about the cool things you’ve seen at the show. (Bill loves talking about gadgets. Last year, he went into gadget overload!)

If you plan to be at CES, but are stuck working a booth or suite, let us know and Bill will try to stop by and say hi. Drop us an email at hdxrpt_CES@principledtechnologies.com and we will set up an appointment.

Finally, we’re really excited about the big changes at the Principled Technologies Web site. The new Web site gives us a lot of opportunities. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be looking at ways the Development Community can take advantage of them.

Eric

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Posted in Application-based benchmarks, Benchmarking, CES, Collaborative benchmark development, HDXPRT 2013, HDXPRT Development Community benefits, Principled Technologies, What makes a good benchmark?, Windows 8 | Tagged CES |

Lots of things happening!

By Eric Hale

on November 15, 2012

If you’re interested in the interface formerly known as Metro (IFKaM), it’s an exciting time. A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks.

Perhaps the most exciting news is that the first Windows 8 tablets using the Intel Atom (Clover Trail) processor have started hitting the shelves, with many more coming in the next few weeks.

Nor are things are boring in the Windows RT space.

The first Windows RT tablet with LTE capabilities will be available this week from AT&T. You’ll find the press release here.
Microsoft released new firmware for Windows RT devices. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the firmware update improves performance. This is something we will be investigating in the near future.
Microsoft added Windows RT to its Compatibility Center. You can go there to find a comprehensive list of devices that are compatible with Windows RT. Because TouchXPRT’s scenarios focus on media creation and manipulation, we were particularly interested in cameras, media players, and TV devices.

With so much news, TouchXPRT needs some news of its own. When we released the community preview, we gave permission to publish results – the first time that’s happened for a benchmark that was not final. Now we are going to be creating an online database of results from the community preview. Look for it to go live next week.

With so many new devices and updated old ones, there’s a lot out there to test. We hope that you’ll share the results of your testing, and submit them to the database. The more results we get, the more valuable the database will be.

One final note: Microsoft released its first security patches for Windows 8 on Tuesday. If you are running Windows 8, whether on a touch device or not, check them out.

Eric

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Posted in Touch-based devices, TouchXPRT, TouchXPRT results, Windows 8 |

Back in September

By Eric Hale

on November 8, 2012

Back in September, we made a prerelease version of a patch to let HDXPRT run on Windows 8. (See Working towards Windows 8.) We’ve been testing the final version of the patch and hope to release it in the next few days.

We wanted to give you a heads up that there are a few differences between the versions of Windows that may affect your HDXPRT testing. For example, we have found that some that older systems that meet the minimum specs for HDXPRT 2012 and Windows 8 may not have Windows 8 drivers available. The lack of these drivers can cause the benchmark to fail.

Also, while it was possible for a lab like ours to test without activation of Windows 7 during the 30-day grace period, activation is different under Windows 8. To reliably run HDXPRT on Windows 8, activation is required.

We are updating the HDXPRT documentation based on our testing. Generally, though, testing on Windows 8 is very similar to testing on Windows 7.

We are releasing the patch on Friday, November 9 . Please try it out and let us know what you think!

Eric

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Posted in HDXPRT 2012, HDXPRT development process, Let us know your thoughts, Windows 8 |

What you’re going to need

By Eric Hale

on September 27, 2012

We’re planning to release the source code for HDXPRT 2012 soon after we release the update for Windows 8, probably in mid-November. The source code will be freely available to the members of the community. In preparation for that, here’s some information about what you’ll need to build the benchmark.

As we’ve discussed before, HDXPRT is a complicated entity, with a test harness, multiple workloads, and an installer. Consequently, you’ll need several tools to edit and build
HDXPRT 2012:

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2005
• Microsoft SDK, (version 6.0.6000.0)
• Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0 SDK x64
• AutoIT v3
• InstallShield 2012 Standalone version. Note: The InstallShield Professional Version is required to edit the install script.
• Visual Build Pro 7 Note: It is possible to edit and build HDXPRT without Visual Build Pro. However, Visual Build Pro enables an automated build process.

If you install these products per their instructions, your system will be ready to build HDXPRT 2012 when the source code becomes available.

Remember, the HDXPRT 2013 suggestion period starts Monday. We’ll open a section of the forum for suggestions then. However, if you want to get an early start, feel free to go ahead and send suggestions to hdxprtsupport@hdxprt.com.

Eric

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Posted in HDXPRT 2012, HDXPRT development process, HDXPRT source code, Windows 8 |

Working towards Windows 8

By Eric Hale

on September 20, 2012

This past Wednesday, Bill hosted a Webinar to discuss HDXPRT 2012. He covered a lot of material. We’ll make a recording of it available on the site fairly soon.

During the Webinar, Bill mentioned that we’re working on a patch to let HDXPRT run on Windows 8. We have begun testing this patch. However, given the high level of interest in the community about testing HDXPRT on Windows 8, we are going to offer the patch on Friday to any community members that want to try it on an “as is” basis.

Using the patch is straightforward. Having installed HDXPRT on a Windows 8 system, you copy a few files to the HDXPRT\Bin folder, run a DOS script, and reboot. At that point, HDXPRT should run on the Windows 8 system. We will include detailed instructions with the download.

The patch should have no impact on the scores. This means you can compare results from Windows 8 systems with the results you already have from Windows 7 systems.

We hope that you will try HDXPRT on Windows 8 and let us know what you see. We’ll use your feedback as we finalize the update of HDXPRT 2012 that will fully support Windows 8.

When the update is available, we’ll post to the community forum, tweet, and put a notice on the Web page.

In other news, there’s a post on the forum that gives instructions for getting more detailed timing information from HDXPRT. Community members can read that post here: How to get more detailed timing information from HDXPRT 2012

Finally, the comment period for HDXPRT 2013 starts October 1. Be thinking about what you’d like to see in HDXPRT 2013!

Eric

Update: The prerelease Patch for Windows 8 is now available. You can download it here.

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Posted in HDXPRT 2012, HDXPRT metrics, HDXPRT Webinar, Let us know your thoughts, Uncategorized, Windows 8 |

Category: Windows 8

Going Live

There is such a thing as too much

Lots of things happening!

Back in September

What you’re going to need

Working towards Windows 8

Check out the other XPRTs: