NEST in the New SPEC Benchmark Suite

In early May 2026, the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) released a new, updated benchmark suite—the first since 2017—that reflects modern, compute-intensive workloads typical of today’s real-world software. It is used to objectively measure and compare processor (Central Processing Unit, CPU) performance under realistic conditions. NEST is included in the updated benchmark suite as scientific simulation software because it represents complex, compute-intensive workloads characteristic of modern server and workstation architectures. The current suite contains 52 benchmarks—nine more than the 2017 version.

NEST (Neural Simulation Tool) is open-source software specifically developed for simulating large-scale, biologically realistic, spike-coupled neuronal networks. It enables the modeling of the dynamics of billions of synapses and millions of neurons to understand how neural circuits process information, learn, or how diseases such as Parkinson’s alter signaling pathways in the brain.

Researchers at the Institute for Advanced Simulation (IAS) at Forschungszentrum Jülich use NEST for large-scale brain simulations on some of the world’s largest supercomputers. Together with experts at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) and the Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC), they develop high-performance algorithms and memory-efficient data structures for NEST. Today, NEST is used worldwide in research and education and serves as a reference for neuromorphic computing systems, such as the SpiNNaker-2 system currently being deployed at JSC. Numerous scientific publications are based on simulations carried out with NEST.

Quotes

“The inclusion in the benchmark suite shows that researchers in Jülich and within the Helmholtz Association are capable of developing mature and relevant code. This would not have been possible without the long-term coordination of development by groups at Forschungszentrum Jülich and NMBU, as well as their sustained resources. Equally important has been the global community, which has continuously contributed valuable ideas and developments. Over more than a decade, NEST has greatly benefited from the Human Brain Project (HBP), EBRAINS and HiRSE. Without this support, NEST would not be where it is today. We must recognize software as scientific infrastructure.”
Prof. Markus Diesmann, Director at the Institute for Advanced Simulation, Computational and Systems Neuroscience (IAS-6)

“The inclusion of the NEST code in the SPEC CPU 2026 benchmark testifies to the value of three decades of systematic work on the quality of our scientific software within the international NEST community. I would like to thank all developers who contributed to this success—especially Mahesh Madhav of Ampere Computing, who provided sustained support for the NEST simulator during the evaluation process for SPEC CPU 2026.”
Prof. Hans Ekkehard Plesser, Institute for Advanced Simulation, Computational and Systems Neuroscience (IAS-6) and Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås

Publication:

Madhav, M., Lee, A., Mejia, A., Moore, B., Soppadandi, C., Cambly, C., Müllner, C., Bowers, D., Reiner, D., Bakhvalov, D., Zhao, D., Voth, D., Xue, F., Silber-Chaussumier, F., Bucek, J., Southern, J., Liu, J., Himer, J., Henning, J., … Todorovski, Z. (2026). SPEC CPU: The Next Generation (Version 1). https://doi.org/10.48550/ARXIV.2605.01575

List of Benchmarks

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