We propose a set of methods to classify vendors based on estimated CPU performance and predict CPU performance based on hardware components. For vendor classification, we use the highest and lowest estimated performance and frequency of occurrences of each vendor to create classification zones. These zones can be used to identify vendors who manufacture hardware that satisfy a given performance requirement. We use multi-layered neural networks for performance prediction, which account for nonlinearity in performance data. Various neural network architectures are analysed in comparison to linear, quadratic, and cubic regression. Experiments show that neural networks obtain low error and high correlation between predicted and published performance values, while cubic regression produces higher correlation than neural networks when more data is used for training than testing. An analysis of how the neural network architecture affects prediction is also performed. The proposed methods can be used to identify suitable hardware replacements.

We propose a set of methods to classify vendors based on estimated central processing unit (CPU) performance and predict CPU performance based on hardware components. For vendor classification, we use the highest and lowest estimated performance and frequency of occurrences of each vendor in the dataset to create classification zones. These zones can be used to list vendors who manufacture hardware that satisfy given performance requirements. We use multi-layered neural networks for performance prediction, which accounts for nonlinearity in performance data. Several neural network architectures are analysed in comparison to linear, quadratic, and cubic regression. Experiments show that neural networks can be used to obtain low prediction error and high correlation between predicted and published performance values, while cubic regression can produce higher correlation than neural networks when more data is used for training than testing. The proposed methods can be used to identify suitable hardware replacements.