CPU2017 Flag Description
Hitachi Vantara Advanced Server DS220 (Intel Xeon Gold 6258R, 2.70 GHz)

Copyright © 2016 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved.


Base Compiler Invocation

C benchmarks

Fortran benchmarks

Benchmarks using both Fortran and C

Benchmarks using Fortran, C, and C++


Peak Compiler Invocation

C benchmarks

Fortran benchmarks

Benchmarks using both Fortran and C

Benchmarks using Fortran, C, and C++


Base Portability Flags

603.bwaves_s

607.cactuBSSN_s

619.lbm_s

621.wrf_s

627.cam4_s

628.pop2_s

638.imagick_s

644.nab_s

649.fotonik3d_s

654.roms_s


Peak Portability Flags

603.bwaves_s

607.cactuBSSN_s

619.lbm_s

621.wrf_s

627.cam4_s

628.pop2_s

638.imagick_s

644.nab_s

649.fotonik3d_s

654.roms_s


Base Optimization Flags

C benchmarks

Fortran benchmarks

Benchmarks using both Fortran and C

Benchmarks using Fortran, C, and C++


Peak Optimization Flags

C benchmarks

619.lbm_s

638.imagick_s

644.nab_s

Fortran benchmarks

603.bwaves_s

649.fotonik3d_s

654.roms_s

Benchmarks using both Fortran and C

621.wrf_s

627.cam4_s

628.pop2_s

Benchmarks using Fortran, C, and C++

607.cactuBSSN_s


Implicitly Included Flags

This section contains descriptions of flags that were included implicitly by other flags, but which do not have a permanent home at SPEC.


Commands and Options Used to Submit Benchmark Runs

submit= MYMASK=`printf '0x%x' $((1<<$SPECCOPYNUM))`; /usr/bin/taskset $MYMASK $command
When running multiple copies of benchmarks, the SPEC config file feature submit is used to cause individual jobs to be bound to specific processors. This specific submit command, using taskset, is used for Linux64 systems without numactl.
Here is a brief guide to understanding the specific command which will be found in the config file:
submit= numactl --localalloc --physcpubind=$SPECCOPYNUM $command
When running multiple copies of benchmarks, the SPEC config file feature submit is used to cause individual jobs to be bound to specific processors. This specific submit command is used for Linux64 systems with support for numactl.
Here is a brief guide to understanding the specific command which will be found in the config file:

Shell, Environment, and Other Software Settings

numactl --interleave=all "runspec command"
Launching a process with numactl --interleave=all sets the memory interleave policy so that memory will be allocated using round robin on nodes. When memory cannot be allocated on the current interleave target fall back to other nodes.
KMP_STACKSIZE
Specify stack size to be allocated for each thread.
KMP_AFFINITY
Syntax: KMP_AFFINITY=[<modifier>,...]<type>[,<permute>][,<offset>]
The value for the environment variable KMP_AFFINITY affects how the threads from an auto-parallelized program are scheduled across processors.
It applies to binaries built with -qopenmp and -parallel (Linux and Mac OS X) or /Qopenmp and /Qparallel (Windows).
modifier:
    granularity=fine Causes each OpenMP thread to be bound to a single thread context.
type:
    compact Specifying compact assigns the OpenMP thread <n>+1 to a free thread context as close as possible to the thread context where the <n> OpenMP thread was placed.
    scatter Specifying scatter distributes the threads as evenly as possible across the entire system.
permute: The permute specifier is an integer value controls which levels are most significant when sorting the machine topology map. A value for permute forces the mappings to make the specified number of most significant levels of the sort the least significant, and it inverts the order of significance.
offset: The offset specifier indicates the starting position for thread assignment.

Please see the Thread Affinity Interface article in the Intel Composer XE Documentation for more details.

Example: KMP_AFFINITY=granularity=fine,scatter
Specifying granularity=fine selects the finest granularity level and causes each OpenMP or auto-par thread to be bound to a single thread context.
This ensures that there is only one thread per core on cores supporting HyperThreading Technology
Specifying scatter distributes the threads as evenly as possible across the entire system.
Hence a combination of these two options, will spread the threads evenly across sockets, with one thread per physical core.

Example: KMP_AFFINITY=compact,1,0
Specifying compact will assign the n+1 thread to a free thread context as close as possible to thread n.
A default granularity=core is implied if no granularity is explicitly specified.
Specifying 1,0 sets permute and offset values of the thread assignment.
With a permute value of 1, thread n+1 is assigned to a consecutive core. With an offset of 0, the process's first thread 0 will be assigned to thread 0.
The same behavior is exhibited in a multisocket system.
OMP_NUM_THREADS
Sets the maximum number of threads to use for OpenMP* parallel regions if no other value is specified in the application. This environment variable applies to both -qopenmp and -parallel (Linux and Mac OS X) or /Qopenmp and /Qparallel (Windows). Example syntax on a Linux system with 8 cores: export OMP_NUM_THREADS=8
Set stack size to unlimited
The command "ulimit -s unlimited" is used to set the stack size limit to unlimited.
Free the file system page cache
The command "echo 1> /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches" is used to free up the filesystem page cache.

Red Hat Specific features

Transparent Huge Pages
On RedHat EL 6 and later, Transparent Hugepages increase the memory page size from 4 kilobytes to 2 megabytes. Transparent Hugepages provide significant performance advantages on systems with highly contended resources and large memory workloads. If memory utilization is too high or memory is badly fragmented which prevents hugepages being allocated, the kernel will assign smaller 4k pages instead.
Hugepages are used by default unless the /sys/kernel/mm/redhat_transparent_hugepage/enabled field is changed from its RedHat EL6 default of 'always'.

Operating System Tuning Parameters

OS Tuning

ulimit:

Used to set user limits of system-wide resources. Provides control over resources available to the shell and processes started by it. Some common ulimit commands may include:

Transparent Huge Pages (THP):

THP is an abstraction layer that automates most aspects of creating, managing, and using huge pages. THP is designed to hide much of the complexity in using huge pages from system administrators and developers, as normal huge pages must be assigned at boot time, can be difficult to manage manually, and often require significant changes to code in order to be used effectively. Transparent Hugepages increase the memory page size from 4 kilobytes to 2 megabytes. Transparent Hugepages provide significant performance advantages on systems with highly contended resources and large memory workloads. If memory utilization is too high or memory is badly fragmented which prevents hugepages being allocated, the kernel will assign smaller 4k pages instead. Most recent Linux OS releases have THP enabled by default.

Linux Huge Page settings:

If you need finer control and manually set the Huge Pages you can follow the below steps:

Note that further information about huge pages may be found in your Linux documentation file: /usr/src/linux/Documentation/vm/hugetlbpage.txt


Firmware / BIOS / Microcode Settings

Hyper-Threading (Default = Enabled):

This feature allows enabling or disabling of logical processor cores on processors supporting Intel Hyper-Threading (HT). When enabled, each physical processor core operates as two logical processor cores. When disabled, each physical core operates as only one logical processor core. Enabling this option can improve overall performance for applications that benefit from a higher processor core count.

Intel Virtualization Technology (Intel VT, VT-x) (Default = Enabled):

When enabled, a hypervisor or operating system supporting this option can use hardware capabilities provided by Intel VT. Some hypervisors require that you enable Intel VT. You can leave this set to enabled even if you are not using a hypervisor or an operating system that uses this option. With default BIOS settings as shipped with most systems, the default state for this setting is Enabled. However, this setting can change it's default setting depending on the Workload Profile that is selected, or what Workload Profile is default for the a certain system.

VT-d (Intel VT-d) (Default = Enabled):

If enabled, a hypervisor or operating system supporting this option can use hardware capabilities provided by Intel VT for Directed I/O. You can leave this set to enabled even if you are not using a hypervisor or an operating system that uses this option. With default BIOS settings as shipped with most systems, the default state for this setting is Enabled. However, this setting can change it's default setting depending on the Workload Profile that is selected, or what Workload Profile is default for the a certain system.

Processor C1 Enhanced Halt State (Default = Enable):

This setting does not take effect until after you have rebooted the server.

Last Level Cache (LLC) Dead Line Allocation (Default = Enabled):

In the Skylake cache scheme, mid-level cache (MLC) evictions are filled into the last level cache (LLC). If a line is evicted from the MLC to the LLC, the Skylake core can flag the evicted MLC lines as "dead". This means that the lines are not likely to be read again. This option allows dead lines to be dropped and never fill the LLC if the option is disabled. Values for this BIOS option can be:

Last Level Cache (LLC) Prefetch (Default = Disabled):

This option configures the processor Last Level Cache (LLC) prefetch feature as a result of the non-inclusive cache architecture. The LLC prefetcher exists on top of other prefetchers that that can prefetch data in the core data cache unit (DCU) and mid-level cache(MLC). In some cases, setting this option to disabled can improve performance. Typically, setting this option to enable provides better performance. Values for this BIOS option can be:

Sub-NUMA Clustering (SNC) (Default = Enabled):

SNC breaks up the last level cache (LLC) into disjoint clusters based on address range, with each cluster bound to a subset of the memory controllers in the system. SNC improves average latency to the LLC and memory. SNC is a replacement for the cluster on die (COD) feature found in previous processor families. For a multi-socketed system, all SNC clusters are mapped to unique NUMA domains. (See also IMC interleaving.) Values for this BIOS option can be:

Pwr and Perf Profile (Default = Custom):

Configure your own power and performance settings under Custom or adopt quick setting profiles.

Last updated Aug. 24, 2020.


Flag description origin markings:

[user] Indicates that the flag description came from the user flags file.
[suite] Indicates that the flag description came from the suite-wide flags file.
[benchmark] Indicates that the flag description came from a per-benchmark flags file.

The flags files that were used to format this result can be browsed at
http://www.spec.org/cpu2017/flags/HitachiVantaraPlatform-DS220-V1.html,
http://www.spec.org/cpu2017/flags/Intel-ic19.1u1-official-linux64_revA.html.

You can also download the XML flags sources by saving the following links:
http://www.spec.org/cpu2017/flags/HitachiVantaraPlatform-DS220-V1.xml,
http://www.spec.org/cpu2017/flags/Intel-ic19.1u1-official-linux64_revA.xml.


For questions about the meanings of these flags, please contact the tester.
For other inquiries, please contact info@spec.org
Copyright 2017-2020 Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation
Tested with SPEC CPU2017 v1.1.0.
Report generated on 2020-09-16 10:27:11 by SPEC CPU2017 flags formatter v5178.