Version: 5.0
Visual C++ 5.0 is a C++ compiler by Microsoft released in 1997. I use this as a real-world benchmark for 1997-1999 era CPUs.
In order to benchmark I've taken the Apache 1.3b3 source code (released 1997) and compile it via command line. To record the computing time I've written a very small program in Turbo Pascal to dump the actual time into a file. This way I can record the time when the compiler starts and record the time when it's finished. Deduct the times and you'll get the total computation time.
I can share the source-code and timestamp utility but not the Visual C++ 5.0 application since it's copyrighted by Microsoft.
My benchmark method
1. work in progress!
Since it does require some I/O by reading source code and writing the compiled binaries scores may differentiate when running the benchmark from system to system. However, on my ALi Aladdin IV (GA-5AX) system I've consistently used the same CF-card drive setup so the computation times are comparable.