BenchmarkXPRT Development Community Blog

Looking for a bargain?

on August 14, 2014

There are many benefits to being a member of the community: the XPRT community previews, the source code for the benchmarks, the monthly newsletter, and more. To join the community, all you’ve had to do up until now is sign up and pay a one-time $20 fee. Our goal with the fee was to make sure that people who joined were serious.

Today, we’re announcing a change. We recognize that, for some companies, getting that $20 fee reimbursed can be a hassle. So, if you work for a device maker, OEM, chip manufacturer, or retailer, you’ll be able to join the community for free.

Here’s how it works: Simply fill out the form, use your company e-mail address, and click the option to be considered for a free membership. We’ll send you an email within one business day to verify the address is real and then activate your membership.

Simple, right?

Justin

Comment on this post in the forums

Posted in BenchmarkXPRT development community, Collaborative benchmark development, Community Preview, Performance benchmarking, Source code |

Speaking the same language

By Eric Hale

on August 7, 2014

We count on our community members for so much: benchmark ideas, critiquing the benchmark designs, and testing the community previews. Community members with programming skills can vet the source code and submit code for inclusion in the benchmarks.

We love getting code from our members. However, people have widely differing opinions about what constitutes well-documented code. A lot of it comes down to taste, but it’s easier to read code when there are common conventions. So, we’ve put together a very brief description of some conventions that would make it easier to read your code.

Because the XPRT benchmarks are written in a number of languages, we don’t discuss the particulars of coding style in detail. We know that you know the best practices for your language of choice. However, when we’re reading code in C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, HTML5, XML, and more, it helps to have some points of reference.

So, check it out and let us know what you think. If you have code to share, please post on the forums or send us a message at BenchmarkXPRTsupport@principledtechnologies.com. We can’t wait to see what you’ve come up with!

Eric

Comment on this post in the forums

Posted in BenchmarkXPRT development community, Collaborative benchmark development, Source code, What makes a good benchmark? |

An HDXPRT 2014 update

By Justin Greene

on July 31, 2014

After the HDXPRT 2014 release last week, we discovered a new issue. During installation, if network connections were active, Windows SmartScreen would pop up with a message that said, “Windows SmartScreen prevented an unrecognized app from starting…” If network connections were disabled, a popup would say, “Windows SmartScreen can’t be reached right now.”

Even after turning off SmartScreen entirely, we continued to receive Windows publisher verification warnings. It turns out that the problem relates to testing on a system where Windows 8/8.1 is reinstalled over an existing copy of the OS. Residual information in the C:\Windows.old files apparently trigger the warning. It may also occur if you upgraded from Windows 8 or 8.1 Preview to Windows 8.1.

You may not encounter this problem at all during testing. If you do, there are at least three options for dealing with this. The first option is to turn off SmartScreen in the Windows Action center and disable Windows prompts about publisher verification. Then, open Internet Explorer – Internet Options, click the Security tab, click the Custom level button, and scroll down to select Enable Launching applications and unsafe files.

The second option is to delete any Windows.old files. You can find instructions for that here.

The third is to test on a completely fresh OS install on a reformatted drive.

Also, today we’re posting an updated build that fixes a few UI issues. Scores from the original build are still valid and comparable.

If you have any feedback or questions regarding HDXPRT 2014, feel free to send us a message at BenchmarkXPRTsupport@principledtechnologies.com.

Justin

Comment on this post in the forums

Posted in HDXPRT, HDXPRT 2014, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 |

HDXPRT 2014 is here!

By Eric Hale

on July 24, 2014

Today we formally released HDXPRT 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.

HDXPRT 2014 address the most common comments we had about the previous versions. It is a much smaller and faster benchmark. Instead of taking over five hours to get a result, as HDXPRT 2012 did, you can now install the benchmark and get a result in less than 2 hours. Also, because we were able to trim the benchmark size considerably, you can download HDXPRT directly from our site via a compressed install file. See the HDXPRT 2014 User Manual, available in the download and at HDXPRT.com, for installation instructions.

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

Although HDXPRT is much smaller and faster than HDXPRT 2013, we worked hard to make sure than we did not compromise the results. Give it a try and let us know what you think!

Eric

Comment on this post in the forums

Posted in BenchmarkXPRT development community, HDXPRT 2014, HDXPRT capabilities, HDXPRT Development Community benefits |

An XPRT training course

By Eric Hale

on July 17, 2014

We have a couple of exciting announcements today! A few weeks ago, we promised something special for BatteryXPRT, and we can now show off the all new BatteryXPRT training course. The BatteryXPRT training course is an online, interactive, multi-media tool designed to make learning about the benchmark easy and enjoyable.

You can easily navigate to detailed videos and graphics explaining how to build the benchmark from source code, how to configure your device, how results are calculated, and much more. It’s like the BatteryXPRT design document, white paper, and user manual have come to life!

In addition to following the link above, you can also find the course at BatteryXPRT.com. The course works on most popular browsers in Windows and OSX.

In other news, we have a name for the Chrome benchmark, CrXPRT. Thanks for all the suggestions, and let us know what you think of the name.

As promised last week, the CrXPRT Design Document is available to the development community today. You’ll find it on the CrXPRT tab in the members’ area. If you’re not yet a member, we’d love for you to join here.

If you have any questions about CrXPRT of feedback on the BatteryXPRT course, feel free to contact us at BenchmarkXPRTsupport@principledtechnologies.com.

Eric

Comment on this post in the forums

Posted in BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android, BenchmarkXPRT development community, Chrome OS, Collaborative benchmark development, Video |

More details to come

By Eric Hale

on July 10, 2014

As we’ve been saying the past couple of months, we’re working on a benchmark for Chrome OS. The experimentation phase is winding down, and we are starting to shape the code into a useable benchmark. The design plan will leverage existing WebXPRT tests, of course. However, we’ve gone far beyond that. The benchmark will include video playback, 3D modeling via WebGL, and even an HTML5 game. The test also uses Chrome OS’ native execution capability. The benchmark will actually use the Portable Native Client (PNaCl), as PNaCl is the recommended tool chain for native client. It also gives the benchmark the ability to run on more platforms.

As we mentioned before, we’re including a battery test as part of the new benchmark. So far, we haven’t found a way to remove the requirement to put the device in developer mode for the battery test.

Next week, we’ll publish a design document for the community to review. As always, the design document is based on the comments and suggestions we received combined with our own research and experimentation.

Eric

Comment on this post in the forums

Posted in Chrome OS, Future of performance evaluation, HTML5, Performance benchmarking, WebXPRT |

Looking for a bargain?

Speaking the same language

An HDXPRT 2014 update

HDXPRT 2014 is here!

An XPRT training course

More details to come

Check out the other XPRTs: