General benchmarking information

• The definitions for benchmark, Whetstone and MIPS from the On-Line Computing Dictionary.
• The Yahoo page on computer benchmarks.
• The Usenet group comp.benchmarks is widely read.
• The latest version of the comp.benchmarks FAQ can be fetched directly from the author's site. It lists 46 different benchmarks.
• BenchWeb is a complete Web site dedicated to computer benchmarks, with an impressive list of links.
• If you are mainly concerned with CPU performance, take a look at the CPU Info Center. And if your favorite CPU belongs to the x86 family, you can check the sandpile.org site.
• PDS: the Performance Database Server is an on-line database with benchmark results for a variety of benchmarks and configurations.

Linux benchmarking information

• For basic Linux benchmarking, you will find the Linux Benchmarking HOWTO at the LDP site and mirrors.
• Samuel S. Chessman has a page with graphics comparing the performance of Linux SMP kernels.
• Uwe F. Mayer has set up a Web site for a version of the BYTEmark benchmark suite that he modified for Linux - nbench.

Specific benchmarks

• The Doom benchmark site. Will tell you something about the game performance of Linux boxes.
• MDBNCH: a molecular dynamics benchmark, written in FORTRAN. It is a good example of an application benchmark.
• LMBENCH is a low-level benchmark suite for UNIX systems.
• A Web site with results for the x-bench test running on XFree86 servers (Note: x-bench is considered outdated and inadequate as a measure of modern X server performance).
• WebStone 2.01 is a benchmark suite for Web server performance analysis.

High performance computing

• Linux can reach incredible levels of raw computing power, when clusters of cheap Linux boxes are networked using Fast Ethernet connections ! Visit the CACR Beowulf site and also check some cool renderings produced by CACR's Beowulf Machine.
• The TOP 500 Supercomputer sites. OK, they are not using Linux yet, but who knows ?