CPUintensiv

CPUintensiv is an open-source framework and benchmark suite intended to measure and compare CPU-intensive workloads across hardware platforms and operating environments. It provides a curated set of workloads designed to stress the CPU core, including integer arithmetic, floating-point computation, cryptographic primitives, data compression, and synthetic kernels that target instruction pipelines, caches, and branch predictors. The goal is to yield portable, repeatable benchmarks that help compare processors, compilers, and system configurations.

Origin and development: CPUintensiv was initiated by a consortium of researchers and industry practitioners in the early 2020s to address inconsistencies in CPU performance benchmarking. The project is community-maintained with governance that emphasizes open access and reproducibility.

Architecture and features: The suite is modular and extensible via plugins. Core tests can be executed under Linux, Windows, and macOS, with builds targeting x86-64 and ARMv8 at minimum. It provides a standardized result format (JSON) including throughput, latency, energy proxy, and thermal state where available. The toolchain supports multiple languages for orchestration and extension, including C, Rust, and Python bindings.

Applications and limitations: CPUintensiv is used by hardware vendors, data centers, researchers, and educators to compare CPUs, study performance under different compiler options, and evaluate scheduling strategies. Users should note that results depend on system configuration, compiler flags, and thermal throttling; proper baselines and environmental controls are required for meaningful comparisons.

See also: CPU benchmarking, performance profiling, microarchitecture.