WPrime is a computer program that calculates a set number of square roots using

Newton's method In numerical analysis, Newton's method, also known as the Newton–Raphson method, named after Isaac Newton and Joseph Raphson, is a root-finding algorithm which produces successively better approximations to the roots (or zeroes) of a real-valu ...

for estimating functions verifying the results by squaring them then comparing them with the original numbers.

Significance

WPrime is popular in the

overclocking In computing, overclocking is the practice of increasing the clock rate of a computer to exceed that certified by the manufacturer. Commonly, operating voltage is also increased to maintain a component's operational stability at accelerated spe ...

community for testing the performance and stability of computer processors, as Super PI is single-threaded. Its popularity stemmed from being able to utilize 100% of a

multi-core processor A multi-core processor is a microprocessor on a single integrated circuit with two or more separate processing units, called cores, each of which reads and executes program instructions. The instructions are ordinary CPU instructions (such a ...

's computing time enabling its use as a multi-threaded benchmark application in competitions, computing reviews, and marketing campaigns.

Criticism

The use of

for testing stability is inherently unreliable due to the self-correcting nature of the algorithm with subsequent iterations correcting any potential errors. WPrime would theoretically only detect instability from several consecutive errors. Additionally some have argued that the multi-threading algorithm used is not indicative of real world performance though much of this was due to poor implementations of multi-threading in consumer applications the early days of multi-core processors.

References

External links

*{{Official website, www.wprime.net Utility software