CoreMark is a benchmark that measures the performance of central processing units (CPU) used in embedded systems.
It was developed in 2009[1] by Shay Gal-On at EEMBC and is intended to become an industry standard, replacing the Dhrystone benchmark.
The code is under the Apache License 2.0 and is free of cost to use, but ownership is retained by the Consortium and publication of modified versions under the CoreMark name prohibited.
Specifically, to verify correct operation, a 16-bit CRC is performed on the data contained in elements of the linked list.
CoreMark draws on the strengths that made Dhrystone so resilient - it is small, portable, easy to understand, free, and displays a single number benchmark score.