Last month, Standard Performance Evaluation Corp. (SPEC) created a working group to begin development of a virtualization standard. And this week, IBM and Intel said they have offered a virtualization benchmark to the standards group for its consideration.

What IBM and Intel are offering is called vConsolidate, which measures processor and memory throughput efficiency on two or more servers.

Lorie Wigle, director of server technology marketing at Intel, said IT planning departments will be able to use the benchmark to simulate the workloads they are planning to consolidate and determine the best hardware platform for them. The joint Intel and IBM benchmark should be ready for users sometime in the first half of next year, she said.

Warrenton, Va.-based SPEC, a nonprofit company that has developed a wide range of IT benchmarks, set up a working group on virtualization that includes representation from the major vendors, including IBM, Intel, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Dell Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. Virtualization software vendors are also expected to participate, and IT managers have been invited to contribute ideas to a standards process, according to SPEC.

A benchmark has to be consistent across all operating platforms and has to be "fair for everybody involved," according to SPEC spokesman Bob Cramblitt, who said parts of what the vendors contribute to the standards effort may be included in a final standard. "Nobody is going to let one vendor get away with something that might favor their particular configuration."