Whetstone
noun · first attested 1970s
For two decades the standard measure of computer speed was named after a Leicestershire village.
A synthetic benchmark program used to measure a computer's floating-point performance.
52.5740°N -1.1800°W · Q7993522
Record
- Relationship
- Indirect, via a person or title
- Confidence
- Well attestedThe place link is the standard scholarly account.
- Attested
- 1970s
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
Whetstone
- In English
Whetstone
Harold Curnow and Brian Wichmann built the benchmark at the British National Physical Laboratory in the early 1970s, basing its instruction mix on statistics gathered from real ALGOL programs. It took its name from the Whetstone ALGOL compiler, written at an English Electric site in Whetstone, near Leicester. Results were quoted in kilo-Whetstone instructions per second, and the later integer benchmark was named Dhrystone as a pun on it.