EEMBC Tames the Wild, Wild World of Android Benchmarking

AndEBench™-Pro Provides Unbiased Measurement of Android-Based Devices

EL DORADO HILLS, Calif.-- June 19, 2014 --The Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium (EEMBC) today announced the availability of AndEBench-Pro, its advanced Android device benchmark. AndEBench-Pro provides professional-grade Android device benchmarking that allows device vendors and consumers to reliably assess the performance of their Android-based devices. As an independent and unbiased tool, AndEBench-Pro empowers users to compare devices, providing them with confidence in their purchasing decisions.

“Unfortunately, Android benchmarks in the market have been developed by entities that might be naïve about how to develop a structurally sound benchmark, and furthermore their motivation is unclear”

AndEBench-Pro focuses on the key metrics that reflect the subsystems and usage models of applications running on Android devices. Hardware tests in the benchmark thoroughly exercise the CPU, GPU, memory, and storage subsystems using carefully designed, tough-to-fool algorithms. The Platform test includes common tasks such as GUI rendering, XML parsing, image manipulation, data compression, and cryptography, all combined into real-world scenarios.

The AndEBench working group, led by Ronen Zohar, Principal Engineer at Intel Corporation, was joined by EEMBC members including ARM, Imagination Technologies, Intel, Marvell Semiconductor, NVIDIA, and most of the other application processor vendors.

“After more than 18 months of debating, defining, and developing, we are proud to deliver to the industry and the Android community this comprehensive and invaluable benchmark,” said Mr. Zohar. “It’s truly amazing how many decisions went into the making of the sophisticated, yet –easy-to-use AndEBench-Pro, but the resulting benchmark is a tool that users can confidently run knowing it will generate technically sound and meaningful scores.”

“Unfortunately, Android benchmarks in the market have been developed by entities that might be naïve about how to develop a structurally sound benchmark, and furthermore their motivation is unclear,” said Markus Levy, EEMBC’s President. “Given the expertise that has gone into developing AndEBench-Pro and the transparent availability of source code, EEMBC is convinced the benchmark is structurally sound and serves the industry’s needs.”

In early 2012, EEMBC released its first-generation Android benchmark, called AndEBench. This pioneering benchmark provided a useful and transparent way to measure basic CPU performance. With this more sophisticated launch, AndEBench scores are not comparable to those generated by AndEBench-Pro. Still, EEMBC encourages the continued use of AndEBench, and highlights for its communities the availability of user-submitted scores representing more than 1,000 devices.

With support for both English and Chinese languages, the invaluable AndEBench-Pro can be downloaded for free from Google Play™ and the Amazon™ Appstore for Android. Professional device reviewers should contact EEMBC directly to obtain their specific version of AndEBench-Pro that will enable them to change benchmarking parameters and gain undisclosed scoring information to aid in their device analysis. In addition, EEMBC encourages all vendors and manufacturers to join the consortium’s working group to contribute to the definition and development of our next generation AndEBench. To join the working group, contact Markus Levy for details.

About EEMBC
EEMBC, the Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium, develops industry-standard benchmarks to test embedded processors and systems such as smart phones and network firewall appliances. EEMBC’s benchmark development work is supported by yearly member dues and license fees.

EEMBC members include ACE Associated Compiler Experts, AMD, Analog Devices, Andes Technology, ARM, Atmel, Avago Technologies, Broadcom, C-Sky Microsystems, Cavium Networks, Cypress Semiconductor, Dell, Freescale Semiconductor, Google, Green Hills Software, IAR Systems, Imagination Technologies, Infineon Technologies, Intel, Lockheed Martin, Marvell Semiconductor, MediaTek, Mentor Embedded, Microchip Technology, Nokia Solutions and Networks, NVIDIA, NXP Semiconductors, Qualcomm, Realtek Semiconductor, Red Hat, Renesas Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Silicon Labs, Somnium Technologies, Sony Computer Entertainment, STMicroelectronics, Synopsys, Texas Instruments, Tilera, TOPS Systems, Wind River Systems, and Xilinx.