SPEC CPU2006 Flag Description - Platform settings

Firmware / BIOS / Microcode Settings

Hardware Prefetch:

This BIOS option allows the enabling/disabling of a processor mechanism to prefetch data into the cache according to a pattern-recognition algorithm.

In some cases, setting this option to Disabled may improve performance. Users should only disable this option after performing application benchmarking to verify improved performance in their environment.

Adjacent Sector Prefetch:

This BIOS option allows the enabling/disabling of a processor mechanism to fetch the adjacent cache line within an 128-byte sector that contains the data needed due to a cache line miss.

In some cases, setting this option to Disabled may improve performance. Users should only disable this option after performing application benchmarking to verify improved performance in their environment.

Hyper-Threading Technology:

Disabling Intel's Hyper-Threading Technology reduces the number of threads per core to 1. The default is Enabled; in this case each core provides additional resources for executing up to 2 threads in parallel.

Frequency Floor Override:

Enabling this feature sets a minimum floor frequency at which all cores will run independent of what frequency the cores are requesting. This function is designed to improve IO performance and remote socket performance.Setting a higher floor will increase power costs.