Characterization of file I/O activity for SPEC CPU2006

SPEC CPU2006 is a compute-intensive benchmark suite designed to stress a computer system's processor, memory subsystem, and compiler. To construct this suite, SPEC has selected benchmarks that are derived from real world applications. When run with their reference inputs, these programs place a significant computational burden on today's mainstream desktops as well as high-end workstations and servers. For these applications to thoroughly exercise the merits of a particular processor/memory design point, it is necessary to limit the amount of I/O activity generated. Since these applications come from real world applications, the suite developers have considered how best to limit the amount of file-based I/O activity present in these applications. This paper presents the characteristics of file I/O activity in the resulting suite and its overall impact on the performance of these applications. We also report on some of the choices SPEC has made in order to reduce the file I/O activity in some specific programs of the suite.