BAPCo Debuts SYSmark 2000

Santa Clara, California - December 17th, 1999 The Business Applications Performance Corporation (BAPCoÒ), a non-profit consortium of leading computer industry publications, independent testing labs, PC hardware manufacturers, semiconductor manufacturers and software publishers announces the release of SYSmarkÒ 2000. SYSmark 2000 will extend BAPCo's leadership in industry standard benchmarks by providing an application-based benchmark that reflects today's leading edge software applications for Internet Content Creation and Office Productivity. SYSmark 2000 will support all Microsoft® Windows® operating systems: Windows 2000, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 98, and Windows 95. SYSmark 2000 is the first product being introduced under the newly formed strategic alliance between BAPCo and MadOnion.com. MadOnion.com, a leading provider of web services and e-commerce solutions, will provide marketing support and distribution for SYSmark 2000. The advantage of using SYSmark 2000 lies in the strength of its workloads, which reflects actual usage of real applications within the new computing paradigms. To define the benchmark workload 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. In addition, BAPCo conducted research to understand the consumer PC segment trends in 1999. These efforts led to the development of comprehensive and scientifically designed workloads for leading edge applications covering a wide range of Internet Content Creation and Office Productivity applications. SYSmark 2000, with extensive validation across multiple hardware and software configurations, helps ensure consistent and reliable performance results. 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, semiconductor manufacturers, and software developers. SYSmark 2000 can be used by: · PC OEM's, hardware and software developers, MIS departments, system integrators, publications, testing labs, Fortune 500 companies, and end-users interested in measuring and/or comparing PC performance based on real applications. · Information technologists and others to accurately forecast present and future desktop computing needs. Key SYSmark 2000 features and benefits include the following: · A robust set of twelve application benchmarks covering a wide range of Intent Content Creation and Productivity application categories. · Internet Features: Applications use popular Internet features in the benchmark. · Supporting multiple operating systems: Supports all Microsoft Windows operating systems, including: Windows 2000, Windows 98, Windows 95, and Windows NT 4.0. · Non-U.S. English operating system support: Supports most European Microsoft Windows Operating systems, including Dutch, French, Finnish, German, Italian, and Spanish. · Standardized testing through an automated point-and-click Benchmark Manager with reporting guidelines to ensure reliable, repeatable results. · Extensive validation across multiple hardware and software configurations to ensure consistent and reliable results. · Ability to collect and store performance data for user-specified projects; ability to compare user results with a wide range of vendor and testing lab results available publicly on BAPCo's web site: www.bapco.com · Automated generation of BAPCo's Full Disclosure Report (FDR) for ensuring consistent reporting of results. The SYSmark 2000 incorporates the following leading edge Internet Content Creation and Office Productivity applications: INTERNET CONTENT CREATION MetaCreations Bryce® 4, Avid* Elastic Reality® 3.1, Adobe Photoshop® 5.5, Adobe Premiere® 5.1, and Microsoft Windows Media Encoder 4.0. OFFICE PRODUCTIVITY Corel CorelDRAW® 9.0, Microsoft Excel 2000, Dragon NaturallySpeaking® Preferred 4.0, Netscape Communicator® 4.61, Corel Paradox® 9.0, Microsoft PowerPoint® 2000, and Microsoft Word 2000. SYSmark 2000 is available for $99.95 USD. Please visit www.bapco.com or www.MadOnion.com to order SYSmark 2000. The benchmark was developed and is fully supported by the current BAPCo membership. For a list of members please visit www.bapco.com For more information, please refer to www.bapco.com or www.MadOnion.com or contact: John Peterson BAPCo 2200 Mission College Blvd., SC12-608, Santa Clara, CA 95052 Phone: 408-988-7654 Fax: 408-765-4920 john_peterson@bapco.com Sarah Burns MadOnion.com Senior Consultant High Road Communications Phone: 416-368-8348 sburns@highrd.com *NOTE: BAPCo, and SYSmark are registered trademarks of The Business Applications Performance Corporation. MadOnion.com is the trademark of MadOnion.com formerly Futuremark Corporation, Ltd. All other names mentioned are trademarks, or registered trademarks of their respective companies.