BAPCo Debuts First Benchmarking Software for Computers Running Windows 98.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 26, 1998--The Business Applications Performance Corporation (BAPCo(TM)), a non-profit consortium of leading computer industry publications, independent testing labs, PC hardware manufacturers, software publishers, and semiconductor manufacturers today announces SYSmark(R) 98, the industry's first standard tool for measuring the performance of computers running on Windows(R) 98, Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0.

BAPCo breaks new ground with the release of SYSmark 98, a new suite of application-based benchmarks that addresses the new computing challenges faced by corporations and end-users. SYSmark 98 is a suite of 14 application-based benchmarks ranging from traditional Office Productivity to Internet Content Creation and Speech Recognition.

The benchmarks have been developed using BAPCo's pioneering Functional-modeling methodology that focuses on usage patterns of actual users. By introducing SYSmark 98, BAPCo extends the results of this methodology by providing application benchmarks that not only reflect today's usage but also provides an accurate impression of the future performance of personal computers in emerging areas such as Speech Recognition.

In addition to conducting research in the consumer segment of the PC market, in 1997, BAPCo, with the help of several Fortune 500 corporations, identified new application areas and benchmarking methodologies that address new evaluation and characterization requirements of the industry.

These efforts led to the development of comprehensive and scientifically designed workloads in new and exciting areas such as Internet Content Creation, Speech Recognition, Optical Character Recognition and Video Editing as well as new workloads in the traditional Office Productivity category.

This all-encompassing suite of benchmarks can be used by Information technologists and others to accurately forecast present and future desktop computing needs. The advantage of using SYSmark 98 lies in the strength of its workloads, which reflects actual usage of real applications within the new computing paradigms.

Moreover, BAPCo's benchmarks are cooperatively designed and developed by top performance engineers from a wide cross-section of industry-leading publications, testing labs, PC manufacturers, software developers and semiconductor manufacturers.

SYSmark 98 can be used by:

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--   Information technologists and end users who make purchasing
     decisions for computers running Windows 98
--   Industry publications and testing labs in need of a robust tool
     for evaluating PC performance
--   Hardware developers who need to analyze and tune products under
     development
--   Software developers who want to optimize the performance of their
     applications

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In addition to the standardized tests provided, performance tools such as the Windows NT Performance Monitor or other tools developed by users or third parties can also be integrated to run in parallel with SYSmark 98 tests.

Key SYSmark 98 features that are absent in other benchmarks include the following:

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--   A robust set of 14 application benchmarks covering a wide range
     of application categories
--   New application benchmarks in areas such as: Internet,
     Multimedia, Content Creation, Optical Character Recognition and
     Speech Recognition
--   Support for Windows 98, Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0
--   Comprehensive and long-running workloads that test many aspects
     of application performance
--   Independently designed and developed by a consortium of 20
     different organizations covering a wide spectrum of industry
     leaders
--   Statistical analysis of run-times ensuring consistency and
     repeatability

     Other features:

--   An automated point-and-click Benchmark Manager;
--   Automated set up of the operating environment for proper and
     consistent execution of the workloads;
--   Ability to collect and store performance data for user-specified
     projects;
--   Automated generation of BAPCo's Full Disclosure Report (FDR) for
     ensuring consistent reporting of results;
--   Network-ready execution for testing by multiple users.

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"Today, BAPCo breaks new ground again by introducing SYSmark 98, a new suite of application-based benchmarks that accurately evaluates and characterizes the performance of personal computers within the new computing paradigms," says John Florkowski, BAPCo's president.

"We expect demand to be high, since this is the first and only forward thinking PC desktop benchmarking tool of its kind."

The SYSmark 98 benchmarks are divided into two categories:

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Office Productivity

     Corel CorelDRAW 8, Microsoft Excel 97, Dragon Systems
     NaturallySpeaking 2.02, Netscape Communicator 4.05 Standard
     Edition, Caere OmniPage Pro 8.0, Corel Paradox 8, Microsoft
     PowerPoint 97, and Microsoft Word 97.

Content Creation

     MetaCreations Bryce 2, Avid Elastic Reality 3.1, Macromedia
     Extreme 3D 2, Adobe Photoshop 4.0.1, Adobe Premiere 4.2, and Xing
     Technology XingMPEG Encoder 2.1.

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SYSmark 98 is available for $199 U.S. dollars. For current registered licensees of SYSmark(R)32, the upgrade price is $99 U.S. dollars.

The benchmark was developed and is fully supported by the current BAPCo membership, which includes: Adaptec, AER Energy Resources Inc., Amdahl Corporation, Client/Server Labs LLC, Compaq, Dell, EMAP Computing Labs, Federal Computer Week, Gateway2000, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, InfoWorld, Lotus, Microsoft, Motorola, NEC, Digital Equipment Corp., Unisys, and Ziff-Davis Publications.

SYSmark 98 and other BAPCo benchmark products can be ordered by calling 800/321-0457. For more information, contact BAPCo, 2200 Mission College Blvd., RN2-02, Santa Clara, CA 95052; phone: [phone]; fax: [phone]; internet: http://www.bapco.com.

Note to Editors: BAPCo, and SYSmark are trademarks, or registered trademarks of The Business Applications Performance Corporation. All other names mentioned are trademarks, or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

CONTACT: BAPCo

John Peterson or Paul Staricco, 408/988-7654

http://www.bapco.com