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SPEC/GPC Applies for Trademarks, Service Marks
to Help Ensure Consistency of Benchmark
Results
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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