The X Performance Characterization (XPC) project group is working toward the release of an application-based standard benchmark by the end of this year. Performance reporting under the benchmark will be published in the GPC News, and the benchmark will be available to the public at this Web site.

The Xlib Playback Benchmark (XPB) includes a set of recording and playback programs that will allow for standardized measurement of X-server performance across different hardware platforms. It was developed for the XPC group by Computing Clarity, a graphics software development firm based in Eugene, Ore.

Xlib has become the standard application programming interface (API) for 2D graphics software developers. Currently, the XPC group uses Xmark93, a primitive-level benchmarking tool, to measure 2D graphics performance. The XPB is expected to be a much superior graphics performance measurement tool, since benchmark files are based on recordings of commercial application scripts.

In addition to verifying their XPB ports, XPC project group members are working on developing standard benchmarking files. Files currently under investigation are designed to characterize X performance for COSE's Common Desktop Environment (CDE), Mentor Graphics, Frame and Pro/Engineer applications. The test files will be derived from live recording sessions of users working with typical functions from a selected application. Performance results from the standard benchmark files will be reported by XPC subcommittee members in this publication. The XPB will also allow users to record Xlib calls from their own applications.