SPEC/GPC Applies for Trademarks, Service Marks

to Help Ensure Consistency of Benchmark Results
LOS ANGELES, August 11, 1999 � SPEC�s Graphics Performance Characterization (GPC) Group has applied for new trademarks and service marks to help ensure that its benchmarks are run and reported on properly. In conjunction with this move, new names have been given to all SPEC/GPC benchmarks and project groups.

Trademarks will cover the group�s OpenGL graphics benchmarks, SPECviewperf and SPECglperf. Service marks will be applied to project group names, such as SPECapc (Application Performance Characterization), SPECmedia (formerly MBC, the Multimedia Benchmark Committee) and SPECopc (OpenGL Performance Characterization). SPECapc�s current benchmarks are now known as SPECapc for Pro/ENGINEER Rev.20 and SPECapc for SolidWorks 98Plus.

The graphics group�s effort is based on the SPEC Open Systems Group�s long-time use of trademarks to promote fair and consistent benchmark run and reporting rules. "Trademarks and service marks help ensure the credibility of results � whether they come from group members, non-members or publications," says Bill Licea-Kane of Compaq, the SPEC/GPC chair. "When people see SPECviewperf ProCDRS-02 numbers, for example, they�ll have a measure of confidence that everyone reporting those numbers was playing by the same rules."

SPEC/GPC will continue to offer its benchmarks for free downloading over its web site and on CDs for a nominal shipping/handling cost. There is now a licensing agreement to which the user must agree before downloading benchmarks or using them on a SPEC/GPC CD.

Graphics benchmarks from SPEC/GPC have become among the most widely used in the world. Over the first half of this year, there were approximately 5,000 SPECviewperf Installshield downloads over the GPC News web site. The web site, which contains updated performance results, received more than 1.6-million hits over a recent six-month period. SPEC/GPC currently has 26 members.

SPEC/GPC is part of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corp. (SPEC), a non-profit corporation formed to establish, maintain and endorse a standardized set of relevant benchmarks that can be applied to the newest generation of high-performance computers. SPEC�s membership includes computer hardware and software vendors, and leading universities and research facilities worldwide.

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