State of the art: benchmarking microprocessors for embedded automotive applications

Benchmarking microprocessors provides a way for consumers to evaluate the performance of the processors. This is done by using either synthetic or real world applications. There are a number of benchmarks that exist today to assist consumers in evaluating the vast number of microprocessors that are available in the market. In this paper an investigation of the various benchmarks available for evaluating microprocessors for embedded automotive applications will be performed. We will provide an overview of the following benchmarks: Whetstone, Dhrystone, Linpack, standard performance evaluation corporation (SPEC) CPU2006, embedded microprocessor benchmark consortium (EEMBC) AutoBench and MiBench. A comparison of existing benchmarks will be given based on relevant characteristics of automotive applications which will give the proper recommendation when benchmarking processors for automotive applications.