Whetstone
The first major {synthetic benchmark} program,
intended to be representative for numerical ({floating-point}
intensive) programming. It is based on statistics gathered by
Brian Wichmann at the {National Physical Laboratory} in
England, using an {Algol 60} {compiler} which translated Algol
into instructions for the imaginary Whetstone machine. The
compilation system was named after the small town of Whetstone
outside the City of Leicester, England, where it was designed.
The later {dhrystone} benchmark was a pun on Whetstone.
Source code: {C
(ftp://netlib.att.com/netlib/benchmark/whetstonec.Z)}, {single
precision Fortran
(ftp://netlib.att.com:/netlib/benchmark/whetstones.Z)},
{double precision Fortran
(ftp://netlib.att.com:/netlib/benchmark/whetstoned.Z)}.
["A Synthetic Benchmark", H.J. Curnow and B.A. Wichmann, The
Computer Journal, 19,1 (1976), pp. 43-49].
(1994-11-14)