Phoronix Test Suite 2.4 Released

Phoronix Media Releases Major Phoronix Test Suite Update

Phoronix Test Suite 2.4 is poised to significantly enrich the Linux and open-source benchmarking landscape with its major enhancements and new features.

Chicago, IL -- February 2, 2010 -- Phoronix Media has announced the immediate release of Phoronix Test Suite 2.4 (codenamed "Lenvik"), as the latest update to their open-source testing framework that delivers immediate and measurable advantages to its customers. The Phoronix Test Suite 2.4 software is compatible with a greater number of operating systems, introduces support for mobile platforms, offers a new range of test profiles, and other features to further solidify its premiere position within the computer benchmarking industry.

Phoronix Test Suite 2.4 is the product of more than 180 changes since the release of Phoronix Test Suite 2.2 in November of 2009. Notable features include:

New Operating System Support: The Phoronix Test Suite has enhanced compatibility with *BSD operating systems including FreeBSD 8.0, OpenBSD, and NetBSD. Support on the Sun OpenSolaris operating system has also improved. Additionally, the Phoronix Test Suite is now supported on Palm webOS and Optware mobile platforms. The Phoronix Test Suite engine (pts-core) also features initial support for Microsoft Windows 7 while greater compatibility and official support will be introduced in a later release of the Phoronix Test Suite.

Image Quality Comparisons: Phoronix Test Suite 2.4 introduces a new type of test profiles that facilitate support for performing image quality comparisons (IQC) on OpenGL applications and other graphics-driven environments. The Phoronix Test Suite is able to autonomously handle visual screenshots with per-frame accuracy and then carry out comparisons between tests in a side-by-side fashion. The Phoronix Test Suite 2.4 release also offers an introductory set of tools for individually analyzing the captured images on a pixel-basis to look for artifacts or rendering differences. Image quality comparison test profiles are initially available for the Nexuiz and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars tests. Further details are shared in Going Beyond Just Measuring Frame Rates.

New Test Profiles: New tests that have been added in Phoronix Test Suite 2.4 include GCrypt, Bullet Physics Engine, Himeno Pressure Solver, FS-Mark, CompileBench, Unpack-Linux, Unigine Heaven, Battery-Power-Usage, Idle-Power-Usage, x264, and the VDrift FPS Monitor. Many other test profiles have been updated and received other contributions.

Other Changes: Improvements in Phoronix Test Suite 2.4 have also been made to the graphing, system sensor monitoring, Phodevi, Phoromatic, pts-core module architecture, the SVG renderer, and other components. There is also new network download engine, new testing safeguards, and additions to the GTK2 graphical user-interface.

"With the Phoronix Test Suite 2.4 release we provide over 130 test profiles and 53 test suites atop our updated testing framework that continues to receive much praise and adoption throughout the world," said Michael Larabel, founder of Phoronix Media and the lead architect of the Phoronix Test Suite. "Yet again we are continuing to push the limits for what's possible with automated benchmarking not only on Linux but other supported operating systems too."

Phoronix Test Suite 2.4 is available from Phoronix-Test-Suite.com. Installations of the Phoronix Test Suite across multiple test systems can be managed through Phoromatic. An update to the PTS Desktop Live operating system will be released in February of 2010 followed by the first release of PTS Netbook Live. The next major update to the Phoronix Test Suite is scheduled for release in the second quarter of 2010.

About The Phoronix Test Suite:

Phoronix Media develops the Phoronix Test Suite in conjunction with leading computer hardware and software vendors. It seeks to standardize the process of validating software and hardware on Linux and alternative operating systems by providing the most comprehensive testing and benchmarking platform. The Phoronix Test Suite makes it easy for hardware vendors to test an array of software relevant to them in an autonomous manner while being highly configurable and providing concise results. Software vendors benefit from being able to test their software in an efficient manner for performance tuning and regression tracking, generate new users of their products through the Phoronix Test Suite, and provide a direct channel to hardware vendors validating against their software using this test suite. Consumers are able to benefit from the Phoronix Test Suite by detecting bottlenecks within their system and experience greater vitality on the Linux Operating System from a standardized test specification.

About Phoronix Media:

Phoronix Media was founded in 2004 and is the largest Internet resource devoted to enriching the Linux hardware experience. Its premiere web property, Phoronix.com, publishes Linux-based hardware reviews, software previews, and driver analyses with more than 1,600 articles and 2,400 news postings. Other Phoronix Media assets include the Phorogit.com, PhoronixForums.com, Foodstruments.com, Cekora.com, and RadeonHD.org.

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