Here is an outline of topics to discuss:
SPEC Benchmarks up to CPU2000. CPU95 benchmark retired in June 2000. Article in IEEE Computer July 2000 gives results from ``benchathon'' held in February 1999. Most recent benchmarks on High Performance Computing (HPC2002) and Java Application Server (jAppServer2002).
http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~cs535/s03/chen:tocs96
http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~cs535/s03/endo:osdi96
http://www.specbench.org/
WebStone: http://www.mindcraft.com/webstone/
http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~cs535/s03/mogul:hotos99/
http://www.cs.wpi.edu/~cs535/s03/goel:osdi02/