AMD resigns from BAPCo consortium, denounces SYSmark 2012 benchmark
It's not uncommon for a company to make a public endorsement from time to time, but AMD today drafted a press release to announce that it's not endorsing a product -- BAPCo's SYSmark 2012 benchmark -- going so far as to drop out of the non-profit org to drive its point home. AMD claims that it attempted to work with BAPCo to focus testing on real-world usage, rather than traditional benchmarks that don't necessarily represent how we use computers today. Nigel Dessau, AMD's CMO, explains the decision on AMD's blog:
"Unfortunately, our good intentions were met with an outcome that we believe does a disservice to the industry and our customers. We weren't able to effect positive change within BAPCo, and the resulting benchmark continues to distort workload performance and offers even less transparency to end users. Once again, BAPCo chose to ignore the opportunity to promote openness and transparency."
The biggest issue appears to be that SYSmark highlights processor speed while ignoring GPU power -- a significant flaw, considering GPUs now play a large role in overall system performance.
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AMD Will Not Endorse SYSmark 2012 Benchmark
AMD Separates from Association with Industry Group BAPCo
SUNNYVALE, Calif. -6/21/2011
AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced that it will not endorse the SYSmark 2012 Benchmark (SM2012), which is published by BAPCo (Business Applications Performance Corporation). Along with the withdrawal of support, AMD has resigned from the BAPCo organization.
"Technology is evolving at an incredible pace, and customers need clear and reliable measurements to understand the expected performance and value of their systems," said Nigel Dessau, senior vice president and Chief Marketing Officer at AMD. "AMD does not believe SM2012 achieves this objective. Hence AMD cannot endorse or support SM2012 or remain part of the BAPCo consortium."
AMD will only endorse benchmarks based on real-world computing models and software applications, and which provide useful and relevant information. AMD believes benchmarks should be constructed to provide unbiased results and be transparent to customers making decisions based on those results. Currently, AMD is evaluating other benchmarking alternatives, including encouraging the creation of an industry consortium to establish an open benchmark to measure overall system performance.
AMD encourages anyone wanting more details about the construction and scoring methodology of the SM2012 benchmark to contact BAPCo. For more details on AMD's decision to exit BAPCo, please read AMD's Executive Blog authored by Nigel Dessau.
About AMD
AMD (NYSE: AMD) is a semiconductor design innovator leading the next era of vivid digital experiences with its groundbreaking AMD Fusion Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) that power a wide range of computing devices. AMD's server computing products are focused on driving industry-leading cloud computing and virtualization environments. AMD's superior graphics technologies are found in a variety of solutions ranging from game consoles, PCs to supercomputers. For more information, visit http://www.amd.com.
