In the light of these guidelines, it was deemed the only viable approach to use a collection of "paper-and-pencil" benchmarks that specified a set of problems only algorithmically and left most implementation details to the implementer's discretion under certain necessary limits.
Since its release, NPB 1 displayed two major weaknesses. Firstly, due to its "paper-and-pencil" specification, computer vendors usually highly tuned their implementations so that their performance became difficult for scientific programmers to attain. Secondly, many of these implementation were proprietary and not publicly available, effectively concealing their optimizing techniques. Secondly, problem sizes of NPB 1 lagged behind the development of supercomputers as the latter continued to evolve.
NPB 2, released in 1996, came with source code implementations for five out of eight benchmarks defined in NPB 1 to supplement but not replace NPB 1. It extended the benchmarks with an up-to-date problem size Class C. It also amended the rules for submitting benchmarking results. The new rules included explicit requests for output files as well as modified source files and build scripts to ensure public availability of the modifications and reproducibility of the results.
NPB 2.2 contained implementations of two more benchmarks. NPB 2.3 of 1997 was the first complete implementation in MPI. It shipped with serial versions of the benchmarks consistent with the parallel versions and defined a problem size Class W for small-memory systems. NPB 2.4 of 2002 offered a new MPI implementation and introduced another still larger problem size Class D. It also augmented one benchmark with I/O-intensive subtypes.
NPB 3 retained the MPI implementation from NPB 2 and came in more flavors, namely OpenMP, Java and High Performance Fortran. These new parallel implementations were derived from the serial codes in NPB 2.3 with additional optimizations. NPB 3.1 and NPB 3.2 added three more benchmarks, which, however, were not available across all implementations; NPB 3.3 introduced a Class E problem size. Based on the single-zone NPB 3, a set of multi-zone benchmarks taking advantage of the MPI/OpenMP hybrid programming model were released under the name NPB-Multi-Zone (NPB-MZ) for "testing the effectiveness of multi-level and hybrid parallelization paradigms and tools".
As of NPB 3.3, eleven benchmarks are defined as summarized in the following table.
"NAS Parallel Benchmarks Changes". NASA Advanced Supercomputing Division. Retrieved 2009-02-23. https://www.nas.nasa.gov/Resources/Software/npb.html
Baily, D.; Barszcz, E.; Barton, J.; Browning, D.; Carter, R.; Dagum, L.; Fatoohi, R.; Fineberg, S.; Frederickson, P.; Weeratunga, S. (March 1994), "The NAS Parallel Benchmarks" (PDF), NAS Technical Report RNR-94-007, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA https://www.nas.nasa.gov/assets/pdf/techreports/1994/rnr-94-007.pdf
Bailey, D.; Harris, T.; Saphir, W.; van der Wijngaart, R.; Woo, A.; Yarrow, M. (December 1995), "The NAS Parallel Benchmarks 2.0" (PDF), NAS Technical Report NAS-95-020, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA https://www.nas.nasa.gov/News/Techreports/1995/PDF/nas-95-020.pdf
Wong, P.; van der Wijngaart, R. (January 2003), "NAS Parallel Benchmarks I/O Version 2.4" (PDF), NAS Technical Report NAS-03-002, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA https://www.nas.nasa.gov/News/Techreports/2003/PDF/nas-03-002.pdf
Baily, D.; Barszcz, E.; Barton, J.; Browning, D.; Carter, R.; Dagum, L.; Fatoohi, R.; Fineberg, S.; Frederickson, P.; Weeratunga, S. (March 1994), "The NAS Parallel Benchmarks" (PDF), NAS Technical Report RNR-94-007, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA https://www.nas.nasa.gov/assets/pdf/techreports/1994/rnr-94-007.pdf
Bailey, D.; Harris, T.; Saphir, W.; van der Wijngaart, R.; Woo, A.; Yarrow, M. (December 1995), "The NAS Parallel Benchmarks 2.0" (PDF), NAS Technical Report NAS-95-020, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA https://www.nas.nasa.gov/News/Techreports/1995/PDF/nas-95-020.pdf
Saphir, W.; van der Wijngaart, R.; Woo, A.; Yarrow, M., New Implementations and Results for the NAS Parallel Benchmarks 2 (PDF), NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA https://www.nas.nasa.gov/Resources/Software/npb_2.2.pdf
van der Wijngaart, R. (October 2002), "NAS Parallel Benchmarks Version 2.4" (PDF), NAS Technical Report NAS-02-007, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA https://www.nas.nasa.gov/assets/pdf/techreports/2002/nas-02-007.pdf
Bailey, D.; Harris, T.; Saphir, W.; van der Wijngaart, R.; Woo, A.; Yarrow, M. (December 1995), "The NAS Parallel Benchmarks 2.0" (PDF), NAS Technical Report NAS-95-020, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA https://www.nas.nasa.gov/News/Techreports/1995/PDF/nas-95-020.pdf
Saphir, W.; van der Wijngaart, R.; Woo, A.; Yarrow, M., New Implementations and Results for the NAS Parallel Benchmarks 2 (PDF), NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA https://www.nas.nasa.gov/Resources/Software/npb_2.2.pdf
Wong, P.; van der Wijngaart, R. (January 2003), "NAS Parallel Benchmarks I/O Version 2.4" (PDF), NAS Technical Report NAS-03-002, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA https://www.nas.nasa.gov/News/Techreports/2003/PDF/nas-03-002.pdf
"NAS Parallel Benchmarks Changes". NASA Advanced Supercomputing Division. Retrieved 2009-03-17. https://www.nas.nasa.gov/Resources/Software/npb_changes.html
van der Wijngaart, R. (October 2002), "NAS Parallel Benchmarks Version 2.4" (PDF), NAS Technical Report NAS-02-007, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA https://www.nas.nasa.gov/assets/pdf/techreports/2002/nas-02-007.pdf
Wong, P.; van der Wijngaart, R. (January 2003), "NAS Parallel Benchmarks I/O Version 2.4" (PDF), NAS Technical Report NAS-03-002, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA https://www.nas.nasa.gov/News/Techreports/2003/PDF/nas-03-002.pdf
Jin, H.; Frumkin, M.; Yan, J. (October 1999), "The OpenMP Implementation of NAS Parallel Benchmarks and Its Performance" (PDF), NAS Technical Report NAS-99-011, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA https://www.nas.nasa.gov/News/Techreports/1999/PDF/nas-99-011.pdf
Frumkin, M.; Schultz, M.; Jin, H.; Yan, J., "Implementation of the NAS Parallel Benchmarks in Java" (PDF), NAS Technical Report NAS-02-009, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA https://www.nas.nasa.gov/News/Techreports/2002/PDF/nas-02-009.pdf
Frumkin, M.; Jin, H.; Yan, J. (September 1998), "Implementation of NAS Parallel Benchmarks in High Performance Fortran" (PDF), NAS Technical Report NAS-98-009, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA https://www.nas.nasa.gov/News/Techreports/1998/PDF/nas-98-009.pdf
"NAS Parallel Benchmarks Changes". NASA Advanced Supercomputing Division. Retrieved 2009-03-17. https://www.nas.nasa.gov/Resources/Software/npb_changes.html
Feng, H.; van der Wijngaart, F.; Biswas, R.; Mavriplis, C. (July 2004), "Unstructured Adaptive (UA) NAS Parallel Benchmark, Version 1.0" (PDF), NAS Technical Report NAS-04-006, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA https://www.nas.nasa.gov/News/Techreports/2004/PDF/nas-04-006.pdf
Frumkin, M.; Shabanov, L. (September 2004), "Benchmarking Memory Performance with the Data Cube Operator" (PDF), NAS Technical Report NAS-04-013, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA https://www.nas.nasa.gov/News/Techreports/2004/PDF/nas-04-013.pdf
"NAS Parallel Benchmarks Changes". NASA Advanced Supercomputing Division. Retrieved 2009-03-17. https://www.nas.nasa.gov/Resources/Software/npb_changes.html
"NAS Parallel Benchmarks Changes". NASA Advanced Supercomputing Division. Retrieved 2009-02-23. https://www.nas.nasa.gov/Resources/Software/npb.html
van der Wijngaart, R.; Jin, H. (July 2003), "NAS Parallel Benchmarks, Multi-Zone Versions" (PDF), NAS Technical Report NAS-03-010, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA https://www.nas.nasa.gov/News/Techreports/2003/PDF/nas-03-010.pdf
Baily, D.; Barszcz, E.; Barton, J.; Browning, D.; Carter, R.; Dagum, L.; Fatoohi, R.; Fineberg, S.; Frederickson, P.; Weeratunga, S. (March 1994), "The NAS Parallel Benchmarks" (PDF), NAS Technical Report RNR-94-007, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA https://www.nas.nasa.gov/assets/pdf/techreports/1994/rnr-94-007.pdf
Baily, D.; Barszcz, E.; Barton, J.; Browning, D.; Carter, R.; Dagum, L.; Fatoohi, R.; Fineberg, S.; Frederickson, P.; Weeratunga, S. (March 1994), "The NAS Parallel Benchmarks" (PDF), NAS Technical Report RNR-94-007, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA https://www.nas.nasa.gov/assets/pdf/techreports/1994/rnr-94-007.pdf
Baily, D.; Barszcz, E.; Barton, J.; Browning, D.; Carter, R.; Dagum, L.; Fatoohi, R.; Fineberg, S.; Frederickson, P.; Weeratunga, S. (March 1994), "The NAS Parallel Benchmarks" (PDF), NAS Technical Report RNR-94-007, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA https://www.nas.nasa.gov/assets/pdf/techreports/1994/rnr-94-007.pdf
Saphir, W.; van der Wijngaart, R.; Woo, A.; Yarrow, M., New Implementations and Results for the NAS Parallel Benchmarks 2 (PDF), NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA https://www.nas.nasa.gov/Resources/Software/npb_2.2.pdf
Wong, P.; van der Wijngaart, R. (January 2003), "NAS Parallel Benchmarks I/O Version 2.4" (PDF), NAS Technical Report NAS-03-002, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA https://www.nas.nasa.gov/News/Techreports/2003/PDF/nas-03-002.pdf
van der Wijngaart, R.; Jin, H. (July 2003), "NAS Parallel Benchmarks, Multi-Zone Versions" (PDF), NAS Technical Report NAS-03-010, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA https://www.nas.nasa.gov/News/Techreports/2003/PDF/nas-03-010.pdf
van der Wijngaart, R. (October 2002), "NAS Parallel Benchmarks Version 2.4" (PDF), NAS Technical Report NAS-02-007, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA https://www.nas.nasa.gov/assets/pdf/techreports/2002/nas-02-007.pdf
van der Wijngaart, R. (October 2002), "NAS Parallel Benchmarks Version 2.4" (PDF), NAS Technical Report NAS-02-007, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA https://www.nas.nasa.gov/assets/pdf/techreports/2002/nas-02-007.pdf
Feng, H.; van der Wijngaart, F.; Biswas, R.; Mavriplis, C. (July 2004), "Unstructured Adaptive (UA) NAS Parallel Benchmark, Version 1.0" (PDF), NAS Technical Report NAS-04-006, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA https://www.nas.nasa.gov/News/Techreports/2004/PDF/nas-04-006.pdf
"NAS Parallel Benchmarks Changes". NASA Advanced Supercomputing Division. Retrieved 2009-03-17. https://www.nas.nasa.gov/Resources/Software/npb_changes.html
Frumkin, M.; Shabanov, L. (September 2004), "Benchmarking Memory Performance with the Data Cube Operator" (PDF), NAS Technical Report NAS-04-013, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA https://www.nas.nasa.gov/News/Techreports/2004/PDF/nas-04-013.pdf
"NAS Parallel Benchmarks Changes". NASA Advanced Supercomputing Division. Retrieved 2009-03-17. https://www.nas.nasa.gov/Resources/Software/npb_changes.html
"NAS Parallel Benchmarks Changes". NASA Advanced Supercomputing Division. Retrieved 2009-03-17. https://www.nas.nasa.gov/Resources/Software/npb_changes.html