SPEC Efficiency Benchmark Development: How to Contribute to the Future of Energy Conservation

A driving force behind the improvement of server efficiency in recent years is the use of SPEC benchmarks. They are used in mandatory government regulations, the ISO/IEC 21836:2020 standard, and product marketing, giving server manufacturers and buyers significant incentive to improve energy efficiency. To produce relevant results, benchmarks need to take into account future trends in hardware and software development, such as the introduction of new accelerators and workloads. To keep pace with the development of the fast moving IT landscape, SPEC plans to introduce a workload bounty program to encourage researchers to develop novel workloads. Submitted workloads will be considered for inclusion in future SPEC Efficiency benchmarks and rewarded. In this paper, we outline the process of energy-efficiency benchmark development. SPEC ensures the development of high-quality benchmarks for government regulations through its extensive experience and collaboration with stakeholders from industry, academia, and governments. One of the tools that emerged from this process is the Chauffeur Worklet Development Kit (WDK), which can be used by researchers to develop next-generation workloads to enhance the real-world relevance of future SPEC benchmarks, a critical element for the benchmarks to contribute to future energy conservation.