| 释义 |
ˈbench-mark
a. A surveyor's mark cut in some durable material, as a rock, wall, gate-pillar, face of a building, etc., to indicate the starting, closing, or any suitable intermediate, point in a line of levels for the determination of altitudes over the face of a country. It consists of a series of wedge-shaped incisures, in the form of the ‘broad-arrow’ with a horizontal bar through its apex, thus {benchm}. When the spot is below sea-level, as in mining surveys, the mark is inverted.[The horizontal bar is the essential part, the broad arrow being added (originally by the Ordnance Survey) as an identification. In taking a reading, an angle-iron {angle} is held with its upper extremity inserted in the horizontal bar, so as to form a temporary bracket or bench for the support of the levelling-staff, which can thus be placed on absolutely the same base on any subsequent occasion. Hence the name.] 1842Francis Dict. Arts, Bench marks, in surveying, fixed points left on a line of survey for reference at a future time, consisting of cuts in trees, pegs driven into the ground, etc. 1883G. J. Symons Brit. Rainf. 134 A series of levels has been taken from the gauge to an Ordnance bench mark.
b. transf. and fig. A point of reference; a criterion, touchstone.
1884Science IV. 202/1 These star-places..are the reference-points and bench-marks of the universe. 1957R. K. Merton Student-Physician iii. 195 Standards represent ‘benchmarks’ with which students compare their ability and performance. 1963Economist 18 May 663/2 Foreign firms have failed to get..orders unless they have offered a price advantage of at least 50 per cent. This is the ‘bench⁓mark’.
▸ Computing. A program or set of programs used as a standard against which the performance of other programs (or the computer systems running them) is compared or evaluated. Freq. attrib.
1962Automatic Data Processing Gloss. (U.S. Bureau of Budget) 40/2 Benchmark problem, a routine used to determine the speed performance of a computer. 1981ABA Banking Jrnl. Dec. 110/3 The benchmark test can provide valuable insight into various features and nuances of the system. 1988Communications Assoc. Computing Machinery 31 1203/2 If a set of benchmarks is chosen well, each program in the real job mix has the same performance characteristics as one or more of the benchmark programs. 1994New Media Aug. 102/1 The CD-Blitz works with popular CD-ROM drives... Three benchmark utilities are also provided. 2000Network World (Nexis) 31 Jan. 36 NLANR's Web Polygraph tool is a widely accepted benchmark for testing cache products. |