Letter from the President

Reality Bytes -- SPEC95 is here

Congratulations to all SPEC members who voted for the SPEC95 suites. I am thrilled that the light at the end of that two-year long tunnel is the bright light of success and not an oncoming train. (That's why I am wearing cool shades these days.)

I want to commend Jeff Reilly (Intel) for his diligence, perseverance and patience with both the Board and the OSSC. I want to applaud OSSC members and their troops back home from a very hard week of work with their detailed analysis of a large number of benchmarks and lively thought-provoking debates. Even before the suite was voted, the OSSC and the Board have recognized the following SPECial people: Paula Smith (DEC), Scott Hinckley (DG), Phil Vitale (HP) and Chris Chan-nui (IBM). SPEC is indebted to them for their significant contributions.

Congratulations to all project leaders: Krishna Dronamraju (AT&T); Paula Smith (DEC); Alex Carlton (HP); Jeff Garelick (IBM); Jeff Reilly (Intel); Mike Paton (Motorola); Reinhold Weicker (SNI); and Bodo Parady (SUN). They all have made SPECtacular contributions to make SPEC95. Without their skills, dedication, cooperation and clear vision, SPEC95 would not be a reality. Thank you all.

SPEC95 will be user friendly -- thanks to Chris Chan-nui (IBM), Jeff Garelick (IBM) and Jeff Reilly (Intel), for automating the run and result production process. This will significantly improve the current resource-intensive newsletter production process.

I want to thank Phil Vitale (HP) for hosting the April '95 SPEC benchathon along with Scott Hinckley and Tom Morgan (DG) for hosting the May OSG meeting. This is a major undertaking and I give my sincere thanks to the organizers.

The System File Server (SFS) Group is now a full steering committee. I want to thank Tom Spuhler (HP), who successfully led the SFS team for the last two years. Congratulations to Spencer Shepler (IBM) for election to the SFS Chair position.

I want to commend Siamak Hassanzadeh (SUN) for making significant progress toward sticky run-rules and the HPG benchmark suite.

Congratulations to Tom Morgan (DG) for the promotion and thanks to him for managing the August "techno-brats". Tom will continue on the Board of Directors.

Thanks to Walter Bays (SUN) who was drafted to take over for Tom. I want to thank Krishna Dronamraju (AT&T) who "volunteered" to get us on the World Wide Web, which will improve both communications and external visibility.

Now the Launch Director needs help. I suggest that SPEC members report SPEC95 results on old and new platforms. This is the best way to ensure a solid link with the past -- SPEC92, and a successful transition to the future -- SPEC95. I encourage the architects, designers and compiler writers to work with the new paradigm -- SPEC95, true component level benchmark suites.

SPEC92 has been a great success and has taught us many lessons. I firmly believe that SPEC95 will be an even greater success. I suggest that we gracefully retire SPEC92.

Finally, I want to thank all SPEC members and their organizations for their contributions to the continued success of SPEC.

Kaivalya M. Dixit

Copyright (c) 1995 Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation