Hardware Detection and System Snapshot

Every benchmark execution begins by collecting a complete hardware snapshot of the system.

The hardware snapshot represents the execution environment in which benchmark results were produced. It serves as a permanent description of the tested machine and allows benchmark reports generated on different systems or at different points in time to be compared with confidence.

Hardware detection is performed before the first benchmark request is executed and remains completely independent from benchmark scoring.

The collected hardware information never modifies benchmark scores.

Instead, it provides the contextual information required to correctly interpret benchmark results.

Design Objectives

The hardware snapshot subsystem was designed with several objectives.

• Produce reproducible benchmark reports.
• Identify the exact hardware configuration used during execution.
• Detect significant hardware changes between benchmark runs.
• Allow comparison between machines without relying on user-provided information.
• Provide platform-independent hardware descriptions.

Every benchmark report therefore contains both performance measurements and the environment in which those measurements were produced.

Snapshot Collection

Hardware information is collected once during benchmark initialization.

The snapshot remains immutable throughout benchmark execution.

Collecting hardware information only once provides several advantages.

• No benchmark measurements are affected by repeated hardware queries.
• Benchmark execution remains deterministic.
• Operating system overhead is minimized.
• Every benchmark category shares the same hardware information.

The hardware snapshot is embedded into every generated benchmark report.

Processor Information

The CPU section describes the processor responsible for executing benchmark workloads.

Collected information includes:

• Processor model
• Architecture
• Vendor identification
• Physical processor core count
• Logical processor count
• Processor frequency (when available)
• Operating system identifier

Whenever possible, information is obtained directly from the operating system rather than inferred from benchmark execution.

The benchmark distinguishes between physical processor cores and logical processors because these values directly influence benchmark execution matrices.

Physical cores determine the representative worker configuration for the Compilation benchmark.

Logical processors define the upper bound of worker configurations for scalable benchmark categories.

Memory Information

The memory snapshot records both operating system memory statistics and installed hardware characteristics.

Operating system information includes:

• Total installed memory
• Currently available memory
• Memory usage during benchmark initialization

Whenever supported by the operating system, additional hardware information is collected from firmware interfaces.

Examples include:

• Memory technology
• DDR generation
• Configured frequency
• Rated frequency
• Module manufacturer
• Module part number
• Module capacity
• Configured voltage
• ECC capability
• Number of installed modules

This information provides significantly more detail than operating system memory statistics alone.

Storage Information

Storage detection identifies the physical device used for benchmark execution.

The benchmark intentionally records the storage device containing the benchmark working directory rather than enumerating every storage device present in the system.

Collected information may include:

• Physical storage model
• Firmware revision
• Device type
• Storage technology
• Filesystem
• Device identifier
• Mount point
• Benchmark working directory

Examples include:

• NVMe SSD
• PCIe Gen4 SSD
• PCIe Gen5 SSD
• SATA SSD
• SATA HDD
• External storage

Platform-specific implementations obtain this information using native operating system facilities.

Operating System Information

The benchmark records the execution platform independently from hardware information.

Collected information includes:

• Operating system
• Platform architecture
• Hostname
• System identifier
• Kernel information (when available)

This information allows benchmark reports produced on different operating systems to be compared correctly.

Benchmark Storage Location

Storage benchmark results depend on the storage device containing benchmark data.

For this reason, the benchmark explicitly records the location used during execution.

The benchmark storage snapshot identifies:

• Requested benchmark directory
• Resolved filesystem path
• Physical storage device
• Filesystem mount point

This information is particularly important for Storage benchmark interpretation because benchmark throughput depends on the characteristics of the underlying storage device.

Platform-Specific Collection

Hardware information is collected using platform-specific implementations.

Linux

Linux provides extensive hardware information through operating system interfaces, firmware tables, and storage subsystem utilities.

Examples include:

• SMBIOS
• procfs
• sysfs
• Storage subsystem metadata

macOS

macOS hardware information is collected using native system interfaces.

Examples include:

• sysctl
• IOKit
• Disk Arbitration

Windows

Windows hardware detection uses native operating system facilities to collect equivalent information.

Examples include:

• Win32 API
• Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)

Although the implementations differ between operating systems, the resulting hardware snapshot follows a unified data model.

Hardware Fingerprint

Every hardware snapshot produces a deterministic fingerprint.

The fingerprint uniquely identifies the detected hardware configuration while remaining independent from benchmark results.

The fingerprint is intended to detect meaningful hardware changes, including:

• CPU replacement
• Memory upgrades
• Storage replacement
• Significant platform modifications

Minor operating system updates do not affect the hardware fingerprint.

The fingerprint is stored within benchmark reports and may be used by future benchmark comparison tools to determine whether two benchmark reports originate from the same physical machine.

Hardware Snapshot and Scoring

Hardware information is intentionally excluded from the scoring model.

Benchmark scores are calculated exclusively from measured workload performance.

Examples:

• Installing additional memory does not directly increase the benchmark score.
• Replacing the storage device does not change the score until benchmark execution measures improved storage performance.
• Upgrading the processor changes benchmark scores only because computational performance changes, not because the processor model differs.

This distinction is fundamental to the benchmark design.

The hardware snapshot describes the execution environment.

The benchmark score describes the measured performance.

The two concepts remain intentionally independent.

Report Integration

The hardware snapshot becomes a permanent component of every benchmark report.

Once the benchmark completes, the snapshot accompanies every measured result, allowing benchmark reports to remain self-contained.

A benchmark report therefore contains all information necessary to answer the following questions:

• Which machine executed the benchmark?
• Which operating system was used?
• Which processor, memory, and storage subsystem were present?
• Which storage device was benchmarked?
• Which benchmark configuration was executed?
• Which benchmark scores were produced?

No external database or user-provided hardware description is required to interpret benchmark results.

Design Philosophy

The hardware snapshot subsystem was designed to maximize reproducibility rather than hardware inventory completeness.

Only information relevant to benchmark interpretation is collected.

The benchmark deliberately avoids collecting unnecessary system information that does not contribute to performance analysis.

This approach keeps benchmark reports compact while ensuring they remain sufficiently detailed for long-term comparison, calibration, and historical benchmarking.

The hardware snapshot therefore serves as the foundation upon which every benchmark report is built, providing the contextual information required to correctly interpret performance measurements across different machines, operating systems, and hardware generations.