SAN ANTONIO, July 24, 2002 -- SPEC/GPC's OpenGL Performance Characterization (SPECopc) project group today released a UNIX version of SPECviewperf 7.0, its graphics performance evaluation software, and demonstrated for the first time a Maya viewset under development. Both the UNIX and Windows versions of SPECviewperf 7.0 are available for downloading on this web site.

SPECviewperf 7.0 includes new features for more accurately capturing and testing graphics functionality from real applications. It provides new and updated viewsets representing popular CAD/CAM/CAE and digital content creation (DCC) applications, including 3ds max, Pro/ENGINEER, Unigraphics, Data Explorer, DesignReview and Lightscape.

The Maya viewset demonstrated for the first time at SIGGRAPH 2002 will round out the SPECviewperf 7.0 suite. It will provide the first standardized method for measuring performance based on real-world use of Maya. The Maya viewset is a cooperative effort between Alias/Wavefront and SPECopc.

"SPECviewperf 7.0 for UNIX widens the audience for those seeking a credible, repeatable measure of real-world graphics performance based on popular applications," says Bill Licea-Kane of ATI, SPECopc's chair. "The new Maya viewset will fill the demand to evaluate graphics performance for this popular high-end 3D animation application."

SPECviewperf measures the 3D rendering performance of systems running under the OpenGL application programming interface (API). Viewsets are the test files that run under SPECviewperf. They represent a similar mix of graphics rendering and manipulation found in actual applications. There have been 4,500 downloads of SPECviewperf 7.0 for Windows in the two months since it became available.

SPECopc is a project group of the Graphics Performance Characterization (GPC) Group, which is part of the Standard Performance Evaluation Corp. (SPEC). SPEC is 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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