What does SPEC HPC2002 measure?
SPEC HPC2002 focuses on high-performance computer platforms. The benchmarks measure the overall performance of high-end computer systems, including • the computer’s processors (CPUs), • the interconnection system (shared or distributed memory), • the compilers • the MPI and/or OpenMP parallel library implementation • the input/output system. It is important to remember the contribution of all these components; performance is more than just the processor. SPEC HPC2002 is made up of several large applications that represent real computing practices in their respective disciplines. Note that SPEC HPC2002 does not overly stress other computer components such as I/O (disk drives), external networking, operating system or graphics. It is possible to underconfigure a system in such a way that one or more of the components impact the performance of HPC2002 (e.g. running a benchmark on a system with 32 CPU and a single disk for I/O). The HPC2002 benchmarks are derived from real HPC applications
