Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation

Linux/Unix version of SPECviewperf 9 now available

WARRENTON, Va., August 22, 2006 – A Linux/Unix version of SPECviewperf 9 graphics performance evaluation software has been posted for free downloading on the SPEC/GPC web site.

Developed by SPEC/GPC’s OpenGL Performance Characterization (SPECopc) project group, SPECviewperf has become a worldwide standard for users assessing graphics performance for new purchases and upgrades, graphics card vendors testing products under development, OEMs evaluating graphics components, and consultants and publication editors reviewing new graphics systems.

SPECviewperf 9 represents a major upgrade to the popular benchmarking software, featuring two new viewsets, a totally restructured viewset, and code changes that bring the testing environment much closer to the realities experienced by application users.

New viewsets in SPECviewperf 9 are based on traces of UGS Teamcenter Visualization Mockup, a conceptual design application, and UGS NX 3, a leading CAD/CAM application. Both new viewsets use very large and complex models – up to 11 million vertices in the Teamcenter Visualization Mockup viewset, and 30 million vertices in the NX 3 viewset.

A significant change in SPECviewperf 9 is the use of glDrawElements instead of glArrayElement within the restructured Maya viewset. With the change, SPECviewperf 9 follows the same OpenGL command stream as Maya 6.5, handling graphics data in the same way as the actual application.

SPECviewperf 9 includes the following new features that enable it to more closely mirror typical application performance:

• larger, more complex viewsets that place greater stress on graphics hardware;
• memory and list allocation improvements that allow data to be reused and shared in the same manner as within actual applications;
• better compression, enabling the inclusion of larger viewsets; and
• mixing of primitive types and graphics modes, helping to ensure that optimizations for a viewset will be reflected in real-world performance.

“This new version represents tremendous strides in accommodating complex data sets and making SPECviewperf results more closely represent real-world performance,” says Ian Williams, SPECopc chair. “This is still a synthetic benchmark, but one with a distinctive ability to accurately capture and codify the performance of graphics operations within popular applications.”

Initial performance testing results and free downloads are available on the SPEC/GPC web site: www.spec.org/gpc. The 600-MB SPECviewperf 9 image can be purchased on CD for $50.

SPECviewperf measures the 3D graphics performance of systems running under the OpenGL application programming interface. The benchmark’s test files, called viewsets, represent a popular mix of graphics rendering and manipulation found in actual applications. Current viewsets represent graphics functionality in 3ds max, CATIA, EnSight, Lightscape, Maya, Pro/ENGINEER, SolidWorks, UGS NX 3, and UGS Teamcenter Visualization Mockup.

SPECopc is a project group of the Graphics Performance Characterization (GPC) Group, which in turn 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. For more information, visit: www.spec.org.

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Bob Cramblitt
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