New benchmark tool available for testing performance of J2EE apps

The Standard Performance Evaluation Corp. has released Version 1.3 of a benchmark suite to measure the performance of Java2 Enterprise Edition application server-driven programs.The SPECjAppServer2004 benchmark emulates real-world workloads by testing the hardware, application server software, Java Virtual Machine, database software, Java Database Connectivity drivers, messaging infrastructure and underlying network.It uses a metric called JOPS, standing for jAppServer operations per second.SPECjAppServer2004 costs about $2,000. SPEC, a nonprofit organization in Warrenton, Va., develops benchmarks for high-performance computing. More information is available at .