BenchmarkXPRT Development Community Blog

HDXPRT 2014 is here!

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 |

It makes a difference

By Eric Hale

on July 3, 2014

Ars Technica reported this week that they tested the developer preview of Android L and saw a whopping 36 percent improvement in battery life! Google made improving battery life a priority, and it sounds like they are succeeding. I can’t wait to test Android L with BatteryXPRT.

This is a spectacular example of how a change in software can change benchmark results, but it’s hardly unique. I’ve written before about how background activity on a phone depressed my friend’s WebXPRT scores. AnandTech used both IE 11 and Chrome 30 to test the Surface Pro 2 with a variety of benchmarks, including WebXPRT, SunSpider, Octane, Browsermark, and others. Browser choice had a noticeable impact on results – about a 40 percent difference for WebXPRT and a 76 percent difference for SunSpider!

People are generally pretty aware that changing the hardware changes performance. However, sometimes they lose track of software differences. When you compare scores, it’s not always possible to keep all the variables the same, but it’s crucial to know what the differences are.

In other BenchmarkXPRT news, we’re making some final adjustments to HDXPRT 2014, and the general release is just around the corner.

Eric

Comment on this post in the forums

Posted in Android, Battery life, HDXPRT 2014, Performance benchmarking, Performance testing on tablets, WebXPRT |

The updated BatteryXPRT is here

By Eric Hale

on June 30, 2014

As we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, we discovered stability issues when running BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android on devices with only 1 GB of RAM. We now have a build that’s stable on those devices. Battery life and performance results from the new build are equivalent to those from the previous build, so your existing results are still valid and comparable.

You can download the new build of BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android at BatteryXPRT.com or through the Google Play Store. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Eric

Comment on this post in the forums

Posted in Android, BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android |

In the works

By Eric Hale

on June 26, 2014

A couple of weeks ago, we mentioned stability issues with BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android when running on systems with only 1 GB of RAM. After some restructuring, we now have a build that’s stable on those devices. We’re finishing testing, and it’s looking good. We’ll be making the new build available at BatteryXPRT.com and in the Google Play store early next week. Battery life and performance results from the new build are equivalent to those from the previous build, so your existing results are still valid and comparable.

Speaking of BatteryXPRT, we have something special coming soon. I can’t say what it is yet, but we haven’t done anything like it before.

We’re also getting closer to a general release for HDXPRT 2014. As we’ve explained before, the new HDXPRT runs three iterations in less than 2 hours, and will be downloadable, so the entire installation and testing process is much quicker than before. We’re currently working out a few kinks, but we expect the general release very soon.

Also, we’re still accepting ideas for naming the Chrome-related XPRT now in development. Share your ideas at BenchmarkXPRTsupport@principledtechnologies.com.

Eric

Comment on this post in the forums

Posted in BatteryXPRT 2014 for Android, Chrome OS, Collaborative benchmark development, HDXPRT 2014 |

HDXPRT 2014 is here!

An XPRT training course

More details to come

It makes a difference

The updated BatteryXPRT is here

In the works

Check out the other XPRTs: