SPEC CPU2006 Platform Settings for Intel-based systems

Firmware / BIOS / Microcode Settings

Hardware Prefetcher:

This BIOS option allows the enabling/disabling of a processor mechanism to prefetch data into the cache according to a pattern-recognition algorithm. This default setting is "Enabled".

In some cases, setting this option to Disabled may improve performance. Users should only disable this option after performing application benchmarking to verify improved performance in their environment.

Adjacent Cache Line Prefetch:

This BIOS option allows the enabling/disabling of a processor mechanism to fetch the adjacent cache line within a 128-byte sector that contains the data needed due to a cache line miss. This default setting is "Enabled".

In some cases, setting this option to Disabled may improve performance. Users should only disable this option after performing application benchmarking to verify improved performance in their environment.

DCU Streamer Prefetcher:

This BIOS option allows enabling/disabling the function of Data Cache Unit (DCU) Streamer prefetcher. This default setting is "Enabled".

If this option sets to "Enabled", when the DCU Streamer prefetcher detects multiple loads from the same line done within a time limit, it prefetches the next line into the L1 data cache.

Hyper-Threading:

Disabling Intel's Hyper-Threading Technology reduces the number of threads per core to 1. The default is Enabled; in this case each core provides additional resources for executing up to 2 threads in parallel.

Power Management Policy:

This option selects the power managment policy. If this option is set to "Custom", the processor power management options are selectable independently.

EIST:

Enabling this option allows the system to dynamically adjust processorvoltage and core frequency. This technology can result in decreased power consumption and decreased heat production. This default setting is "Enabled".

Energy Performance:

This item is displayed when the EIST item is set to "Enabled". This option can only be selectable when the Power Management Policy is set to "Custom". This item decides the energy efficiency policy which is the energy per performance rate. If the highest performance is preferred, this option should be set to "Performance".