The Netlib Performance Database provides an on-line catalog of public-domain computer benchmarks such as the Linpack Benchmark, Perfect Benchmarks, and the Genesis Benchmarks [6]. A benchmark code is a program designed to be run on an architecture so as to produce a relative measure of its execution. Benchmarks tend to evolve from individual applications that do not necessarily stress all features of a given architecture. Thus, benchmark numbers do not imply general machine performance but instead describe the performance of a machine on an algorithm or application class.
Although benchmarking has become very popular because
of the diversity and competition in the computer hardware
business, there was, previous to development of our database,
no central repository for benchmark data.
The WWW interface to our Performance Database
allows the user to
Various archives of scientific data are accessible from the NHSE -
for example, NASA's Planetary Data System
and Astrophysics Data System
,
NIST's Atomic Spectroscopic Database
,
and NOAA's Environmental Data Centers
.
There is no uniform cataloguing method or search interface for
these databases, nor a standard way of describing the contents
and services offered. Thus, the user has no way of systematically
discovering relevant databases and must learn a different interface
for each one.