Inquisitor (hardware testing software)
| Company type | Free software |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software |
| Founded | 2004 |
| Founder | Mikhail Yakshin |
| Products | Hardware diagnostics, stress evaluation, certification, performance benchmarking software |
Inquisitor is a software suite designed for hardware diagnostics, stress evaluation, certification, and performance benchmarking. It comes in three distinct editions:
- Standalone – Installed on existing Linux installations; provides a limited range of tests.
- Live – A Linux live CD that enables comprehensive testing by booting directly into the system under examination.
- Enterprise – A sophisticated version that supports concurrent testing of multiple machines through network boot (PXE), featuring centralized result aggregation and analysis.
Distributed under the GNU General Public License version 3, Inquisitor is classified as free software.
History
The inception of Inquisitor dates back to early 2004 as a proprietary initiative by Mikhail Yakshin at ALT Linux, created for MaxSelect, a hardware vendor based in Russia. Initial releases were closed source with some components partially open. The first two versions concentrated on server-oriented enterprise testing tailored for notebook hardware and were fully implemented by MaxSelect and its subsidiaries.
In 2005, a streamlined edition was developed for distribution as a Live CD, included with MaxSelect's products to allow customers to perform stability stress tests on new hardware.
By August 2007, after resolving legal constraints, Inquisitor was launched as an open-source platform aimed at Linux-based hardware testing, monitoring, and benchmarking. The public release of version 3.0 occurred in July 2008.
Although version 3.1 reached beta status, it was discontinued prior to an official launch.
Tests
Within Inquisitor, "tests" are defined as fundamental procedures for benchmarking, implemented through straightforward Unix shell scripts that execute binary utilities and gather output data. Basic tests provide binary pass/fail results, whereas a more advanced API enables comprehensive benchmark data retrieval.
As of 2008, the test suite includes:
|
|