VIA Apollo KX133 Athlon Chipset - Part 1

For those of you that don’t remember, Intel’s Business and Consumer Application Launcher benchmarks were supplied to us by Intel in order to show off the SSE performance of the Pentium III as well as to show off the memory performance of RDRAM and the 133MHz FSB.  While it was a horrible set of benchmarks to compare non-Intel processors to Intel processors that featured the SSE instructions, it is a wonderful way to compare memory performance. 

The Business Application launcher features 3 applications, Naturally Speaking Professional (voice recognition software), Netshow Encoder (AV encoding software), and Photoshop 5.0 (digital imaging software).  The Consumer Application launcher features 2 applications, PhotoDeluxe Home Edition (consumer level digital image editing software) and AVID Cinema (consumer level digital video editing software).  The descriptions of the tests are listed below:

Intel Performance Measurement Utility - Business Application Launcher 1.2

NATURALLYSPEAKING PROFESSIONAL v3.52
DRAGON SYSTEMS, INC.
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Dragon NaturallySpeaking v3.52 is a continuous speech recognition application that converts speech into text. The script in the performance measurement utility CD plays a pre-recorded wave file (a recorded speech) using Dragon's PlayWave utility. The utility feeds this wave file into NaturallySpeaking which then converts the wave file to text. The time taken to load application and wave file and complete the conversion is used as the performance metric.

The speech recognition program created by Dragon Systems is composed of several pieces including the underlying engine, the user interface, and several middle layers with language models, rules, and acoustic models.

NETSHOW ENCODER 3.0
MICROSOFT CORPORATION
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Using mpg4c32 DLL v3.0.0.3433, dated 02/08/99

Netshow Encoder encodes audio and video content into an Advanced Streaming Format (ASF) stream. The content can be from a live source or an existing .avi, .wav, or .mp3 file. The output from Netshow Encoder is a stream of information that can be heard or viewed with Microsoft Windows Media Player, or sent to a Netshow server for multicasting, unicasting, or storage. The performance measurement utility is testing the MPEG-4 Video Codec which is embodied in the mpg4c32 DLL. The input file is a 30 second 320x240 AVI clip from an Intel MMX(TM) technology advertisement. The script encodes this file using the MPEG-4 Video Codec. The time taken to load the application and input file and complete the encoding is used as a performance metric.


PHOTOSHOP 5.0
ADOBE SYSTEMS, INC.
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Using plug-ins MMXcore.8bx (v5.0.3), LightingEffects.8bf (v5.0.4) and
Wind.8bf (v5.0.4).

Adobe Photoshop 5.0 is an application which provides tools for digital image enhancement, photo retouching, and image compositing, and is typically used by graphic designers, photographers, and electronic publishers. The script loads Photoshop, applies the same sequence of operations to two different image files (boat.tif and Temple8.tif, which are located under the scr_data directory on the CD), and then quits the application. The sequence of the operations is:

1) Load the image file, resize the image to a width of 2048 pixels (the height is adjusted automatically based on the aspect ratio of the original image), and zoom it two times to 33.3% of its original size.

2) Apply the Unsharp mask with an amount of 50, radius of 1 pixel and a threshold of 0. Then apply the Sharpen Edges filter, change the CMYK color setting to ICC mode, and add Parallel directional lighting effect with no texture.

3) Use Sharpen More filter. Add uniformly distributed noise with an amount of 9. Apply parallel directional lighting effect with no texture. Use the Unsharp mask with an amount of 50, radius of 1 pixel and a threshold of 0.

4) Apply Maximum filter with a radius of 1 pixel. Resize the image to 1536 pixel wide (the height is adjusted to keep the original aspect ratio). Change the color from RGB to CMYK. Add stagger wind effect from the right. The time to load the application and image files and complete the operations is used as the performance metric. Note that not all of the Photoshop files and plug-ins are included on the performance measurement utility CD, as not all were needed to run the script. In a
test where the full application was loaded, the typical speed up seen on a Pentium III processor was 29% compared to a Pentium II processor at the same frequency. Results seen here may be marginally faster due to a slightly shorter application load time.

Intel Performance Measurement Utility - Consumer Application Launcher 1.0

PHOTODELUXE HOME EDITION 3.1
ADOBE SYSTEMS, INC.
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Using MMXcore.8bx (1/29/99) and Lighting.8bf (1/13/99) plug-ins

Adobe PhotoDeluxe Home Edition is an application which provides tools for digital enhancement, along with extensive content to create photo-filled projects. This product is typically used by digital hobbyists and families. The performance measurement utility applies various filter sequences to three images (Roses.jpg, Boyclimb.jpg and Seattle.bmp) that can be found in the scr_data directory on the CD.

The script consists of these 3 phases:
1) Load the Rose.jpg file. Zoom in once to view the picture at 50%. Apply Sharpen Edges and Facet filter. Continue with Pinch Distortion of value 65. Spherize the image with 75 as the amount and normal mode. Add Ripple with 100 as the amount and medium size. Add Lighting Effects with Spotlight style, 35 as Brightness and 69 as the spotlight size. Add Stagger Wind effect from the right. Find Edges for the picture. Apply instant fix. Apply right and vertical Orientations. Set the photo width to 419. Close
the file without saving.

2) Load the Boyclimb.jpg file. Zoom In once to set picture size at 33.3%. Apply Twirl at 50 degree angle. Add Pinch distortion with value 65. Stylize with Stagger Wind from the right. Apply Rectangular to Polar Funnel distortion. Motion Blur at 0 degrees. Add Lighting Effects with Spotlight style, 35 as Brightness and 69 as the spotlight size. Exercise Right and vertical Orientations. Adjust photo width to 600. Close the file without saving.

3) Load the Seattle.bmp file. Zoom in once to set picture size at 50%. Sharpen the picture. Remove dust and scratches from the picture. Unsharpen the picture. Apply Blur_More. Apply Twirl at 50 degrees and Spherize the image with value 75 in normal mode. Stylize with Stagger Wind from the right. Add Lighting Effects with Spotlight style, 35 as Brightness and 69 as the spotlight size. Apply Despeckle and dust noises. Close the file without saving.

The time to load the application and image files and complete the operations is used as the performance metric. Note that not all of the PhotoDeluxe files and plug-ins are included on the performance measurement utility CD, as not all were needed to run the script. In a test where the full application was loaded, the typical speed-up seen on a Pentium III processor was 68% compared to a Pentium II processor at the same frequency. Results seen here may be marginally faster due to a slightly shorter application
load time.

AVID CINEMA
AVID TECHNOLOGY, INC.
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Using Ligos MPEG-1 plug-in v1.0.03

Avid Cinema is a video editing tool that is used to create new movies or add impact to existing videos by using editing techniques, music, voice-overs, titles and special effects.

The performance measurement utility loads Avid Cinema and opens a file called Surfer.cma which is located in the \Scr_data\Avidcnma directory. The file has 5 clips of wind surfers (Beach Scene.mov, Jump.mov, Radical.mov, The Big One.mov and Zoom Out.mov) which total 23 MB. Go to the Finish Movie mode and export the file to an MPEG-1 file using the Ligos MPEG plug-in for Avid Cinema by selecting the Ligos MPEG-1 format. Save the file and exit the application. The saved MPEG file has a size
of 5.6 MB.

The time to load the application and image files and complete the operations is used as the performance metric.