What is the motivation behind the Test Harness (TH)?
The Test Harness (TH) is a necessity to maintain extremely portable, honest benchmarks. The TH provides a standardized interface to each kernel so that you do not have to port each kernel, just the TH. This provides a standard API for dealing with timers and the serial port host-target interface, and for file I/O. Parenthetically, the TH has been ported to more than three dozen architectures so far and has proven a reliable method of doing industry-standard benchmarking. It is analogous to SPEC’s test harness (although designed quite differently), BAPCo’s test setup, and every other benchmark suite. The TH is one of the key components that allows us to conduct certification work inexpensively, passing that savings on to each vendor, and ensures that EEMBC’s test results are truthful and accurate.
