View this article at: http://dev.macnn.com/articles/06/03/28/windows.benchmarks.on.macs
Tuesday, Mar 28, 2006 4:25pm

Apple commits to Windows be...

Apple has become a member of BAPCo, the industry-standard Windows benchmarking consortium, according Gearlog. BAPCo oversees the SYSmark 2004SE and MobileMark benchmark suites used by computer industry trade magazines such as PC Magazine for testing PCs and it also produces the webserver test WEBmark for server-oriented testing. Gearlog reports that the consortium includes other big computer industry names such as AMD, Intel, ATI, nVidia, Dell, HP, Toshiba and Microsoft as well as other media outlets such as Ziff Davis Media and CNET. The companies work together to determine and develop testing methodologies, using industry standard programs such as Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite, and 3ds max, while SYSmark and MobileMark benchmarks are used as performance tests by media outlets, corporations, and government agencies, according to report.

"This is significant because it means that Apple has now committed to Windows-based performance testing, and it will influence industry-standard testing methodologies going forward, possibly including Mac OS X testing," wrote Gearlog's Joel Santo Domingo. "We speculate that Apple will now develop Windows drivers for Intel Macs like the iMac, Mac mini and MacBook Pro with Intel Core Duo processors. You will probably still need to buy your own copy of Windows XP (or Vista), but this is exciting stuff."