Saratoga, California USA – October 27, 2005 – Futuremark Corporation today announced 3DMarkMobile06, a demanding graphics performance benchmarking application for companies developing 3D mobile-device hardware. 3DMarkMobile06 is the only product designed specifically to benchmark next generation OpenGL ES 1.0 and 1.1 mobile hardware.

Futuremark, with over seven years experience developing 2D, 3D and system benchmarking applications, understands the need for unbiased performance measurement of mobile graphics hardware. With the release of 3DMarkMobile06, mobile hardware developers, manufacturers and reviewers will have the first benchmark intended to provide accurate, consistent performance measurements of embedded graphics solutions. Prior to the availability of a workload based benchmark the industry has had to rely on unsubstantiated marketing claims and highly theoretical performance specifications, rather than actual real-world performance results. Credible performance testing will enable handset manufacturers to select the best performing IP and design implementations for their upcoming 3D enabled mobile devices.

"3DMarkMobile06 features future workloads and game programming technologies that consumers will run in next-generation mobile 3D hardware," said Tero Sarkkinen, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Futuremark. "It is important for all companies in the value chain to evaluate how such hardware is able to support new content and services. High-detail game content, for example, generates workloads that make significant demands upon mobile 3D hardware. Companies that use our tools in their product development cycle will be able to deliver better performing hardware in the hands of the ultimate testers, the consumer."

Developers, For Now
The version launched today, 3DMarkMobile06 Developers' Edition, is designed for use on development 3D hardware. It assists product development, design evaluation, and mobile hardware media reviews of next-generation devices. In addition to extremely gruelling 3D game tests, the new benchmark provides an array of feature tests including: image quality; and pixel, vertex, post and CPU processing. With these tests, hardware and prototype device performance can be tested, evaluated and compared in a fair and consistent manner.

3DMarkMobile06 Developers' Edition contains minimal interface and can use a simple command-line interface or basic text configuration file to run each test individually or batched. The performance results are displayed in frames-, polygons- or texels-per-second.

With source-code licensing, technology developers can port the 3DMarkMobile06 to their platform. Futuremark published binaries allow developers to test hardware on common platforms. And, mobile hardware reviewers will be able to test next-generation products as those development boards and devices become available.

OpenGL ES, 3D for mobile hardware
Created by the Khronos Group and its consortium of industry members, OpenGL ES API enables the authoring and playback of dynamic media on a wide variety of platforms and devices. OpenGL ES is a royalty-free, cross-platform API for embedded 3D graphics hardware on handheld devices. Derived from subsets of desktop OpenGL, it provides a powerful and flexible low-level interface between software and graphics acceleration with profiles for floating-point and fixed-point systems. OpenGL ES 1.0 and 1.1 are for fixed function hardware, offering acceleration, image quality and high performance on handhelds. Futuremark, a contributing partner in the Khronos Group, has previously developed benchmarks targeted to measure the performance of devices with software implementation of OpenGL ES.

"Futuremark is providing great momentum for Khronos and OpenGL ES with their release of 3DMarkMobile06" said Neil Trevett, Khronos President and Chairman of the OpenGL ES Working Group. He added "This state-of-the-art benchmark raises the bar with high-detail game content workloads and delivers a variety of performance tests that are perfect for benchmarking next generation mobile 3D hardware. This will be a crucial tool to enable the industry deliver compelling 3D-enabled handhelds that are fast, powerful, efficient and built to handle the demands of next-generation OpenGL ES applications."

"Futuremark has been at the leading edge of graphics' benchmarking since 1998, and is looked upon as the primary qualifier for graphics performance on various platforms," said Dr. Jon Peddie, president of the Tiburon CA based market research firm Jon Peddie Research. "Futuremark is bringing this experience to the handheld platform and specifically to test the new processors that will accelerate OpenGL ES 1.0 and 1.1. 3DMarkMobile06 paves the ground for follow-up products from Futuremark targeting OpenGL ES 2.0. Ultimately, this will help the industry deliver 3D performance and shaders to the handheld market that will enable amazing life like applications, rivalling game consoles."

Futuremark industry partners comment on 3DMarkMobile06
Developed in cooperation with members of Futuremark's Handheld Benchmark Developer Program, 3DMarkMobile06 has garnered broad support from industry leaders. Handheld BDP members include ARM, ATI, Bitboys, DMP, Falanx, Imagination Technologies, Intel, Khronos Group, NVIDIA and Symbian.

"SPMark04 has become the de facto standard for measuring the performance of mobile 3D graphics processors and we use it regularly with our customers. We expect the new 3DMarkMobile06 to attain the same status and become the leading mobile graphics benchmark in 2006", said Petri Nordlund, CTO, Bitboys.

"Futuremark not only benefits our clients by providing credible performance numbers in real life applications, it also allows us to develop competitive graphics IP" said Tatsuo Yamamoto, President and CEO, DMP Inc. based in Tokyo Japan. He also added "We found 3DMarkMobile06 very useful in flushing out all performance and compatibility related issues in the early stages of development. We are very pleased to be part of Futuremark's licensing program."

David McBrien, VP Business Development, Imagination Technologies said "Advanced 3D graphics will rapidly become the norm for mobile handsets; our PowerVR technology alone is enabling over 18 devices, from Freescale, Intel, Philips, Renesas, Samsung , Sunplus and TI, with console-class mobile 3D performance. The key competencies for mobiles devices will be features, performance and power-efficiency. 3DMarkMobile will be a valuable measure of both features and overall system performance."

"3D graphics and multimedia content demand rapid advancements in mobile technology and as these devices evolve, so will the need for a performance measurement and rating system," said Glenn Schuster, director of partner programs for the mobile GPU business at NVIDIA. "Futuremark has been a leader in the field in 3D graphics benchmarking on various computing platforms for several years, and we look forward to having a comprehensive tool to help ensure a compelling and enjoyable experience is delivered to mobile consumers around the world."

"Increasingly, consumers are choosing phones with cool graphics. Symbian is working with the industry to enable mobile handset manufacturers to use the latest and greatest graphics acceleration technology." said Bill Pinnell, Product Manager Multimedia, Gaming and Graphics, Symbian. "Futuremark's 3DMarkMobile06 is the first standards based benchmark available that enables the whole industry to evaluate the performance of new hardware with the real-world content that will be appearing on phones"

Availability
3DMarkMobile06 Developers' Edition will be available in November, 2005 via source-code licensing to Futuremark's BDP members. Compiled versions will be available, on request, to media and others. Futuremark will offer binary versions of the benchmark for Windows (i386), Windows CE (ARM) and Symbian (ARM) platforms. The binaries will be built using the latest, publicly available SDKs for each platform. Consumer version of 3DMarkMobile06 will be launched separately when there are enough handsets with hardware accelerated 3D graphics available for consumers.

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