Benchmarking the price of computing

Abstract

A computing benchmark survey was conducted in 1975 by the EDUCOM Planning Council on Computing in Education and Research. Thirteen different FORTRAN programs were run at major universities and colleges. An analysis is made of internal and external prices for individual jobs and representative university workloads. In the survey an attempt was made to control factors such as arithmetic precision, file organization, compiler type, and turn-around time. Significant differences in prices may have arisen, however, due to differences in cost accounting practices and cost recovery policies. Nevertheless, the data support the general view that substantial benefits can be achieved through selective use of computational resources at a variety of different computer centers.