APPLICATIONS

The Standard Performance Evaluation Corp. (SPEC) has issued a call for papers on performance evaluation subjects for the SPEC Benchmark Workshop 2006, a free event to be held Monday, January 23, at the Joe C. Thompson Conference Center on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. Deadline for extended abstracts (four to six pages) or full papers (10-12 pages, double-column IEEE format) is Friday, November 25. Papers can be submitted to the workshop program committee at specworkshop@spec.org. The SPEC Benchmark Workshop 2006 will bring together developers and users of performance evaluation software. Presentations will center on currently available benchmark suites; use of benchmarks in industry, academia and government; and benchmarking methodologies. An award in memory of Kaivalya Dixit, SPEC's co-founder and long-time president, will be given for the first time to the person making the best contribution to the workshop. Considered "Mr. SPEC" by peers and colleagues, Dixit was instrumental in developing the SPEC methodology for creating objective, repeatable benchmarks that reflect computing use in the real world. Those attending the free workshop are also invited to participate in selected sessions during SPEC's annual meeting that follows, January 24 to 26.