Manassas, Va., February 19, 1996 -- The Standard Performance Evaluation Corp. (SPEC) announces that its board has unanimously accepted the Graphics Performance Characterization (GPC) committee as SPEC's newest membership group. Michael Bailey, the GPC organization's chair, will join the SPEC board of directors.

"We welcome the GPC Group as a valuable addition to the SPEC family," says Kaivalya Dixit, SPEC president.

The GPC Group comprises three independent project groups that develop standard benchmarks for measuring graphics performance: the Picture-Level Benchmark (PLB) group, which concentrates on measuring graphics display performance based on prevalent applications; the X Performance Characterization (XPC) group, which develops benchmarks for measuring the performance of computer systems running the X Window System; and the OpenGL Performance Characterization (OPC) group, which provides benchmarks for comparing the performance of OpenGL implementations across vendor platforms, operating systems, and windowing environments. The GPC Group will operate as an independent subgroup of SPEC, with its own budget, officers and bylaws.

"This is an ideal situation for the GPC organization," says Bailey. "We will be able to maintain our autonomy while benefiting from affiliation with the world's most respected benchmarking organization."

The GPC organization is a non-profit group that establishes, maintains and endorses standardized benchmarks for measuring graphics performance. Its members include leading graphics systems vendors, users, consultants and research organizations.

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. The GPC Group joins two other independent SPEC groups, the Open Systems Group (OSG) and the High-Performance Group (HPG). For more information, contact Dianne Rice, SPEC, 10754 Ambassador Drive, Ste. 201, Manassas, VA 22110; tel: 703-331-0180; fax: 703-331-0181; e-mail: info@spec.org.

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