Abstract
We define an approach to benchmarking, “purpose-based benchmarks”, which explicitly and comprehensively measures the ability of a computing system to reach a goal of human interest. This contrasts with the traditional approach of defining a benchmark as a task to be timed, or as the rate at which some activity is performed. Purpose-based benchmarks are more difficult to create than traditional benchmarks, but have a profound advantage that makes them well worth the trouble: they provide a well-defined quantitative measure of the productivity of a computer system.
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