EEMBC & CoreMark Blog

CoreMark includes 3 major algorithms looking at core characteristics:

1. List manipulation – pointers and data access through pointers.

2. Matrix manipulation – serial data access and potentially using ILP.

3. Simple state machine – FSM that excercises the branch unit in the pipeline.

The source code for each of those is in a single file. The other files take care of setting up the data for the benchmark, measuring the time, and spitting out a report with the results.

The platform specific code is in a special folder, and there are several sample ports for self hosted platforms using gcc – linux, linux64, cygwin and simple.

Check the documentation for more info, and check back next week for some interesting analysis…

Since 1997, EEMBC’s goal has been to provide a service to all constituents of the embedded world (including processor and compiler vendors and system developers). In our continuing effort to provide this service, we bring you the EEMBC CoreMark. Our original goal with CoreMark was to replace the once-useful-but-now-antiquated Dhrystone benchmark, and therefore, we have set it up so you can download CoreMark for free. In our initial testing, we have found that CoreMark provides a good starting point for analyzing a processor performance.
You wouldn’t judge a book by its cover, so don’t judge a processor [only] by its core. So, although CoreMark is free, you’ll definitely want to use EEMBC’s application benchmarks which you can easily license for a fee.