New Estimator Software Measures True Mobile Phone Performance

JBenchmark ARM CPU estimator gauges the generation of processor and clock frequency of mobile phones with unique Java-based software

January 30th, 2007 -- Kishonti Informatics, the worldwide leader of mobile performance benchmarking, has announced today the JBenchmark ARM® CPU estimator (ACE), which measures the performance of Java (Java ME)-enabled mobile devices.

“The JBenchmark ACE meets the growing demand from consumers and developers for more transparency in mobile architectures and helps to explain the wide differences in mobile application performance,” said Stuart Robinson, director, Handset Component Technologies, Strategy Analytics. “According to our latest research, virtually all mobile phones incorporate at least one ARM processor, and almost 1.2 billion handsets in use are Java-enabled, meaning that ACE can compare the performance of nearly all mobile devices.”

JBenchmark ACE software is free to download and once started, reveals the type of processor, clock speed and profiles the Java Virtual Machine (VM) used in that mobile device. Besides supporting Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) Java environments, the JBenchmark ACE also supports the DoJa platform developed by DoCoMo and used by millions of phones in Asia and Europe.

“The compiled results demonstrate the large variation in processor clock frequencies across different mobile phones. The gap between the slowest and fastest devices currently on the market is more than a factor of 10, which considerably alters the user experience,” said Laszlo Kishonti, General Manager, Kishonti Infomatics. “The JBenchmark ACE results page reveals that many voice-centric phones use an ARM7™ family processor at 40MHz, in contrast with high-performance open platform devices using ARM9™ or ARM11™ family processors generally running between 300MHz and 600MHz, such as the HTC TyTN running at 400MHz.”

“Feature-rich phones, including smartphones, is by far the fastest growing mobile handset segment. Informa Telecoms & Media expects sales of these devices to reach 55 percent of total handset sales by the end of 2007. Mobile handsets are rapidly evolving into more powerful computing devices,” said Dr. Malik Kamal-Saadi, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media. “The selection of ARM processor type and Virtual Machine are fundamental elements that determine factors such as software compatibility, OS boot time, games performance, and how quickly other applications like music players and photo galleries are opened. Therefore, there is a clear need to understand the relative performance of different platforms as this directly affects the user experience.”

Estimation Methodology
The JBenchmark ACE can identify all major ARM processor generations, including the ARM7, ARM9 and latest ARM11 processor families. Each ARM processor class has different performance profiles and differing range of clock rates which are all reported back by the JBenchmark ACE. Using the JBenchmark ACE, it is possible to see that the ARM11 processor family is being used in the newest most powerful mobile devices, including the Nokia N93, which was voted the European Media Phone of the Year 2006-2007 by the European Imaging and Sound Association (EISA), Europe's largest multimedia press organization. Similarly, it is evident that the ARM7 processor family is still favored for voice-centric phones.

As there are no native Java methods to obtain information regarding an embedded processor, the JBenchmark ACE uses innovative measurements, statistical methods and a database of benchmarked devices to get a precise estimation of the underlying processor class and clock frequency. Each result is classified and compared to all results held in the database to make sure the estimation is realistic. In addition, the ACE adaptive estimator engine improves automatically upon conducting each measurement, which increases the precision of the future results.

Accuracy and Transparency
The JBenchmark ACE also creates a very detailed profile on the Java VM, based on distinct groups of Java acceleration strategies such as: just in time compilers (JIT), ahead of time compilers (AOT), interpreted VMs and hardware accelerated VMs such as ARM Jazelle® technology. Knowing the Java VM used by the mobile device greatly enhances the estimation precision and also provides users with the context for the performance results.

The JBenchmark ACE targets 90 percent accuracy, meaning that more than 90 percent of the processor clock frequencies are estimated correctly to within 10 percent margin of error.

JBenchmark ACE estimations are based on two components:

• The JBenchmark ACE client application runs on the mobile device, collects raw measurement data and sends it back to the server for calculating the final results, which are reported back to the user.
• The JBenchmark ACE server-side engine estimates the final results based on the raw data received from clients. The engine updates itself automatically with every new result received to increase precision.

About Kishonti Informatics:
Kishonti Informatics specializes in mobile gaming, graphics performance measurement and development tools. Its popular JBenchmark and GLBenchmark test suites let network operators, developers and consumers measure and compare the strengths and limits of more than 800 mobile phones and PDAs. The JBenchmark result database is available at www.jbenchmark.com.

ARM and Jazelle are registered trademarks of ARM Limited. ARM7, ARM9 and ARM11 are trademarks of ARM Limited.  All other brands or product names are the property of their respective holders. “ARM” is used to represent ARM Holdings plc; its operating company ARM Limited; and the regional subsidiaries ARM INC.; ARM KK; ARM Korea Ltd.; ARM Taiwan; ARM France SAS; ARM Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.; ARM Belgium N.V.; AXYS Design Automation Inc.; AXYS GmbH; ARM Embedded Solutions Pvt. Ltd.; and ARM Physical IP, Inc.; and ARM Norway AS.

Contact info:
     Laszlo Kishonti
     KISHONTI LP
     http://www.jbenchmark.com
     +36-30-4882754
     laszlo.kishonti@jbenchmark.com