CPU2017 Flag Description
GIGA-BYTE TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD. R263-Z32-AAD1-000 (AMD EPYC 9684X, 2.55GHz)

Test sponsored by Giga Computing Technology Co., Ltd.

Compilers: AMD Optimizing C/C++ Compiler Suite


Base Compiler Invocation

C benchmarks

C++ benchmarks

Fortran benchmarks


Peak Compiler Invocation

C benchmarks

C++ benchmarks

Fortran benchmarks


Base Portability Flags

500.perlbench_r

502.gcc_r

505.mcf_r

520.omnetpp_r

523.xalancbmk_r

525.x264_r

531.deepsjeng_r

541.leela_r

548.exchange2_r

557.xz_r


Peak Portability Flags

500.perlbench_r

502.gcc_r

505.mcf_r

520.omnetpp_r

523.xalancbmk_r

525.x264_r

531.deepsjeng_r

541.leela_r

548.exchange2_r

557.xz_r


Base Optimization Flags

C benchmarks

C++ benchmarks

Fortran benchmarks


Peak Optimization Flags

C benchmarks

500.perlbench_r

502.gcc_r

505.mcf_r

525.x264_r

557.xz_r

C++ benchmarks

520.omnetpp_r

523.xalancbmk_r

531.deepsjeng_r

541.leela_r

Fortran benchmarks


Base Other Flags

C benchmarks

C++ benchmarks

Fortran benchmarks


Peak Other Flags

C benchmarks (except as noted below)

502.gcc_r

C++ benchmarks (except as noted below)

523.xalancbmk_r

Fortran benchmarks


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

Using numactl to bind processes and memory to cores

For multi-copy runs or single copy runs on systems with multiple sockets, it is advantageous to bind a process to a particular core. Otherwise, the OS may arbitrarily move your process from one core to another. This can affect performance. To help, SPEC allows the use of a "submit" command where users can specify a utility to use to bind processes. We have found the utility 'numactl' to be the best choice.

numactl runs processes with a specific NUMA scheduling or memory placement policy. The policy is set for a command and inherited by all of its children. The numactl flag "--physcpubind" specifies which core(s) to bind the process. "-l" instructs numactl to keep a process's memory on the local node while "-m" specifies which node(s) to place a process's memory. For full details on using numactl, please refer to your Linux documentation, 'man numactl'

Note that some older versions of numactl incorrectly interpret application arguments as its own. For example, with the command "numactl --physcpubind=0 -l a.out -m a", numactl will interpret a.out's "-m" option as its own "-m" option. To work around this problem, we put the command to be run in a shell script and then run the shell script using numactl. For example: "echo 'a.out -m a' > run.sh ; numactl --physcpubind=0 bash run.sh"


Shell, Environment, and Other Software Settings

numactl --interleave=all runcpu

numactl --interleave=all runcpu executes the SPEC CPU command runcpu so that memory is consumed across NUMA nodes rather than consumed from a single node. This helps prevent local node out-of-memory conditions which can occur when runcpu is executed without interleaving. For full details on using numactl, please refer to your Linux documentation, 'man numactl'

Transparent Huge Pages (THP)

THP is an abstraction layer that automates most aspects of creating, managing, and using huge pages. It is designed to hide much of the complexity in using huge pages from system administrators and developers. Huge pages increase the memory page size from 4 kilobytes to 2 megabytes. This provides 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 huge pages being allocated, the kernel will assign smaller 4k pages instead. Most recent Linux OS releases have THP enabled by default.

THP usage is controlled by the sysfs setting /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/enabled. Possible values:

The SPEC CPU benchmark codes themselves never explicitly request huge pages, as the mechanism to do that is OS-specific and can change over time. Libraries such as amdalloc which are used by the benchmarks may explicitly request huge pages, and use of such libraries can make the "madvise" setting relevant and useful.

When no huge pages are immediately available and one is requested, how the system handles the request for THP creation is controlled by the sysfs setting /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/defrag. Possible values:

An application that "always" requests THP often can benefit from waiting for an allocation until those huge pages can be assembled.
For more information see the Linux transparent hugepage documentation.

ulimit -s <n>

Sets the stack size to n kbytes, or unlimited to allow the stack size to grow without limit.

ulimit -l <n>

Sets the maximum size of memory that may be locked into physical memory.

powersave -f (on SuSE)

Makes the powersave daemon set the CPUs to the highest supported frequency.

/etc/init.d/cpuspeed stop (on Red Hat)

Disables the cpu frequency scaling program in order to set the CPUs to the highest supported frequency.

LD_LIBRARY_PATH

An environment variable that indicates the location in the filesystem of bundled libraries to use when running the benchmark binaries.

LIBOMP_NUM_HIDDEN_HELPER_THREADS

target nowait is supported via hidden helper task, which is a task not bound to any parallel region. A hidden helper team with a number of threads is created when the first hidden helper task is encountered.

The number of threads can be configured via the environment variable LIBOMP_NUM_HIDDEN_HELPER_THREADS. The default is 8. If LIBOMP_NUM_HIDDEN_HELPER_THREADS is 0, the hidden helper task is disabled and support falls back to a regular OpenMP task. The hidden helper task can also be disabled by setting the environment variable LIBOMP_USE_HIDDEN_HELPER_TASK=OFF.

sysctl -w vm.dirty_ratio=8

Limits dirty cache to 8% of memory.

sysctl -w vm.swappiness=1

Limits swap usage to minimum necessary.

sysctl -w vm.zone_reclaim_mode=1

Frees local node memory first to avoid remote memory usage.

kernel/numa_balancing

This OS setting controls automatic NUMA balancing on memory mapping and process placement. NUMA balancing incurs overhead for no benefit on workloads that are already bound to NUMA nodes.

Possible settings:

For more information see the numa_balancing entry in the Linux sysctl documentation.

kernel/randomize_va_space (ASLR)

This setting can be used to select the type of process address space randomization. Defaults differ based on whether the architecture supports ASLR, whether the kernel was built with the CONFIG_COMPAT_BRK option or not, or the kernel boot options used.

Possible settings:

Disabling ASLR can make process execution more deterministic and runtimes more consistent. For more information see the randomize_va_space entry in the Linux sysctl documentation.

vm/drop_caches

The two commands are equivalent: echo 3> /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches and sysctl -w vm.drop_caches=3 Both must be run as root. The commands are used to free up the filesystem page cache, dentries, and inodes.

Possible settings:

MALLOC_CONF

The amdalloc library is a variant of jemalloc library. The amdalloc library has tunable parameters, many of which may be changed at run-time via several mechanisms, one of which is the MALLOC_CONF environment variable. Other methods, as well as the order in which they're referenced, are detailed in the jemalloc documentation's TUNING section.

The options that can be tuned at run-time are everything in the jemalloc documentation's MALLCTL NAMESPACE section that begins with "opt.".

The options that may be encountered in SPEC CPU 2017 results are detailed here:

PGHPF_ZMEM

An environment variable used to initialize the allocated memory. Setting PGHPF_ZMEM to "Yes" has the effect of initializing all allocated memory to zero.

GOMP_CPU_AFFINITY

This environment variable is used to set the thread affinity for threads spawned by OpenMP.

OMP_DYNAMIC

This environment variable is defined as part of the OpenMP standard. Setting it to "false" prevents the OpenMP runtime from dynamically adjusting the number of threads to use for parallel execution.

For more information, see chapter 4 ("Environment Variables") in the OpenMP 4.5 Specification.

OMP_SCHEDULE

This environment variable is defined as part of the OpenMP standard. Setting it to "static" causes loop iterations to be assigned to threads in round-robin fashion in the order of the thread number.

For more information, see chapter 4 ("Environment Variables") in the OpenMP 4.5 Specification.

OMP_STACKSIZE

This environment variable is defined as part of the OpenMP standard and controls the size of the stack for threads created by OpenMP.

For more information, see chapter 4 ("Environment Variables") in the OpenMP 4.5 Specification.

OMP_THREAD_LIMIT

This environment variable is defined as part of the OpenMP standard and limits the maximum number of OpenMP threads that can be created.

For more information, see chapter 4 ("Environment Variables") in the OpenMP 4.5 Specification.


Operating System Tuning Parameters

kernel.randomize_va_space (ASLR)
This setting can be used to select the type of process address space randomization. Defaults differ based on whether the architecture supports ASLR, whether the kernel was built with the CONFIG_COMPAT_BRK option or not, or the kernel boot options used.
Possible settings: Disabling ASLR can make process execution more deterministic and runtimes more consistent. For more information see the randomize_va_space entry in the Linux sysctl documentation.
drop_caches:
Writing to this will cause the kernel to drop clean caches, as well as reclaimable slab objects like dentries and inodes. Once dropped, their memory becomes free.
Transparent Hugepages (THP)
THP is an abstraction layer that automates most aspects of creating, managing, and using huge pages. It is designed to hide much of the complexity in using huge pages from system administrators and developers. Huge pages increase the memory page size from 4 kilobytes to 2 megabytes. This provides 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.
THP usage is controlled by the sysfs setting /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/enabled. Possible values: THP creation is controlled by the sysfs setting /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/defrag. Possible values: An application that "always" requests THP often can benefit from waiting for an allocation until those huge pages can be assembled.
For more information see the Linux transparent hugepage documentation.

Firmware / BIOS / Microcode Settings

SEV Control: (Default = Enable)
Used to disable or enable SEV (Secure Encrypted Virtualization).
TSME:(Default = Auto)
Used to disable or enable TSME (Transparent Secure Memory Encryption).
TDP Control:(Default = Auto)
Auto = Use the fused TDP, Manual = User can set customized TDP. Values for this BIOS option can be: Auto/Manual. Configures the maximum power that the CPU will consume, up to the platform power limit (PPT). Valid values vary by CPU model. If value outside the valid range is set, the CPU will automatically adjust the value so that it does fall within the valid range. When increasing TDP, additional power will only be consumed up to the Package Power Limit (PPT), which may be less than the TDP setting.
TDP:(Default = Auto)
Specifies the maximum power that each CPU package may consume in the system. The actual power limit is the maximum of the TDP. Valid settings are:
ModelMinimum TDPMaximum TDP
EPYC 9684X320400
EPYC 9384X320400
EPYC 9184X320400
PPT Control:(Default = Auto)
Auto = Use the fused PPT, Manual = User can set customized PPT. Values for this BIOS option can be: Auto/Manual. Configures the maximum power that the CPU will consume, up to the platform power limit (PPT). Valid values vary by CPU model. If value outside the valid range is set, the CPU will automatically adjust the value so that it does fall within the valid range. When increasing TDP, additional power will only be consumed up to the Package Power Limit (PPT), which may be less than the TDP setting.
PPT:(Default = Auto)
Specifies the maximum power that each CPU package may consume in the system. The actual power limit is the maximum of the PPT. Valid settings are:
ModelMinimum TDPMaximum TDP
EPYC 9684X320400
EPYC 9384X320400
EPYC 9184X320400
NUMA nodes per socket:(Default = NPS4)
Specifies the number of desired NUMA nodes per populated socket in the system:
SMT Mode: (Default = Enabled)
Can be used to disable symmetric multithreading. To re-enable SMT, a POWER CYCLE is needed after selecting the 'Auto' option. WARNING - S3 is NOT SUPPORTED on systems where SMT is disabled.
IOMMU: (Default = Enabled)
Enable: Enables the I/O Memory Management Unit (IOMMU), which extends the AMD64 system architecture by adding support for address translation and system memory access protection on DMA transfers from peripheral devices.
4-link xGMI max speed:(Default = Auto)
xGMI (Global Memory Interface) is the Socket SP3 processor socket-to-socket interconnection topology comprised of four x16 links. Each x16 link is comprised of 16 lanes. Each lane is comprised of two unidirectional differential signals. Since xGMI is the interconnection between processor sockets, these xGMI settings are not applicable for 1S platforms. NUMA-unaware workloads may need maximum xGMI bandwidth/speed while other compute efficient platforms may need to minimize xGMI power. The xGMI speed can be lowered, lane width can be reduced from x16 to x8 (or x2), or an xGMI link can be disabled if power consumption is too high.
The default value for this option on Milan platforms is "Auto" which corresponds to "32Gbps". On platforms that support higher speeds, it can be raised to increase performance on workloads that benefit from higher cross-socket bandwidth at the cost of some additional power consumption.
ACPI SRAT L3 Cache as NUMA Domain:(Default = Auto)
Enable/Disable report each L3 cache as a NUMA Domain to the OS. Options available: Auto, Enabled, Disabled.
Memory Interleaving:(Default = Auto)
Memory interleaving is a technique that CPUs use to increase the memory bandwidth available for an application. Without interleaving, consecutive memory blocks, often cache lines, are read from the same memory bank. Because of this, software that reads consecutive memory must wait for a memory transfer to complete before starting the next memory access, reducing throughput and increasing latency. By enabling memory interleaving, consecutive memory blocks are in different banks and can all contribute to the overall memory bandwidth, thus increasing throughput and lowering latency. Values for this BIOS option can be: Auto/Disabled/Enabled.
Determinism Control:(Default = Auto)
Auto = Use default performance determinism settings. Manual = User can set custom performance determinism settings.
Determinism Enable: (Default = Power)
Selects the determinism mode for the CPU:

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/aocc400-flags-A1.2.html,
http://www.spec.org/cpu2017/flags/GIGA-BYTE-Platform-SPECcpu2017-Flags-V1.0-GenoaX.html.

You can also download the XML flags sources by saving the following links:
http://www.spec.org/cpu2017/flags/aocc400-flags-A1.2.xml,
http://www.spec.org/cpu2017/flags/GIGA-BYTE-Platform-SPECcpu2017-Flags-V1.0-GenoaX.xml.


For questions about the meanings of these flags, please contact the tester.
For other inquiries, please contact info@spec.org
Copyright 2017-2023 Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation
Tested with SPEC CPU2017 v1.1.9.
Report generated on 2023-11-07 18:39:14 by SPEC CPU2017 flags formatter v5178.