PassMark Software Newsletter Issue #9 - Apr. 2007

Welcome to our first newsletter for 2007

Last year was a particularly busy time for us with new versions of almost all our software products released over the period. Of all of them, WirelessMon has been perhaps the most enthusiastically greeted with sales increasing 10-fold since the release of the Professional Edition. To all those of you that helped make this such a success we’d like to say ‘Thank you!’

We would also like to thank the terrific customers who sent all the wonderful compliments and testimonials regarding our products and service. The positive feedback has been very welcome and it does help maintain the enthusiasm of our dedicated programmers.

So, what has changed since our last newsletter?

Providing assistance in the creation and management of test cases and plans, TestLog offers a structured approach to the testing process, yet remains versatile enough to fit into any existing methodology (including UML). TestLog uses a lightweight XML database, which makes installation and configuration a matter of a few clicks. Inline reports can be quickly generated presenting statistics, project status and schedule estimations.

Version 3 incorporates many new features including; the ability to view databases over the web; HTML editing of test cases; customizable status values and report strings; simultaneous multiple report generation and many other improvements. Further information can be found at http://www.testlog.com/index.html

This utility application enables the user to monitor the SMART (Self Monitoring Analysis & Reporting Technology) attributes of appropriately enabled EIDE and SATA hard disk drives. DiskCheckup displays the current values of the SMART attributes, along with their threshold values.

In addition to reporting attributes, DiskCheckup monitors the change in those attributes over time and will attempt to predict date of the Threshold Exceed Condition (TEC) or ‘fail date’.

DiskCheckup is free for personal use and Company licenses are available on request. For more information, please see: http://www.passmark.com/products/diskcheckup.htm

In response to the continuing requests for the code used in DiskCheckup, PassMark has developed the SMART DLL SDK. This Software Developers Kit is a component that allows applications to gather the SMART attributes from appropriate EIDE and SATA hard disk drives. The set of easy-to-use API functions can easily be integrated into your software.

The SmartDisk DLL SDK package contains: the API; the C/C++ source code for a demo project; the VisualBASIC source code for a demo project and the SmartDisk DLL API User Guide. More information can be found at http://www.passmark.com/products/smartdiskdll.htm

Some of our PassMark customers may not be aware that we market an excellent search engine under the Wrensoft brand. Version 5.0 of the Zoom Search Engine was recently launched and has proven to be extremely popular. In addition to features commonly found in other search engines (e.g. Boolean search, support for multiple file types, highlighting, etc) Zoom includes the following:

• Websites with over 1,000,000 pages can be indexed and searched.
• Incremental indexing allows changes to websites without the need to re-index the entire site.
• Simultaneous broken link detection and site-mapping. • Content filtering (positive and negative).
• XML/RSS output and A9 compatibility.

Of course, there are many more features, far too many to list here. For more information look up http://www.wrensoft.com/

BurnInTest 5.3
Apart from some minor fixes, the following is a short summary of changes since v5.1.

• Fully Microsoft Vista compatible.
• Multi-monitor 2D, 3D and Video tests.
• New 2D GUI test added to standard 2D graphics test.
• A ‘Notes’ section has been added to the Customer Results Certificate.
• Updated graphics card descriptions for Vista systems.
• Replaced ‘Help’ system with browser-based ‘Help’.
• New command line parameters.
• Windows 98 and Windows ME no longer supported.

PerformanceTest 6.1
The most important changes to PerformanceTest are:

• Fully Microsoft Vista compatible.
• Intel Core2 and Core2 Duo have been added to the Baseline Search options.

Since the launch of Vista the programmers at PassMark have been busy ensuring compatibility with the new operating system. The main problem we have encountered (other than Vista-based device driver problems, see below) is that Microsoft has changed the way in which ‘Help Files’ are handled. Because of this, we have had to redo the help files for all our products in a new form. At this time, we have replaced the help files for all of the major products and are on-track to replace them in the minor products that will be supported for Vista.
As mentioned above, a frequent problem encountered by Vista users is the incompatibility of existing device drivers with Vista. PassMark has now updated all of our drivers to work with Vista 32-bit or 64-bit. In addition, there have been a few problems with the new Administrator-level requirements introduced by the Vista which are being corrected as new releases are made. If you are having a problem with any PassMark software you should:

1. Check the product page on our website to ensure that we state that Vista is supported for that product. www.passmark.com/products/index.htm.
2. Check to see whether you running the latest version of the software, if not upgrade your software to the Vista compatible version.
3. Check to see that any hardware devices addressed by the software have been upgraded to Vista-compatible versions.

Check out the forum for your product to see if the answer has already been posted. If it hasn’t, post your problem and a programmer will quickly respond to your posting.

We have recently modified our CPU Comparison page so that it automatically generates graphs based upon all the PerformanceTest baselines that have been posted our site (updated daily). Drawing on over 10,000 baselines we believe that our comparison represents the largest baseline comparison sample in the world. http://www.cpubenchmark.net/

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Are you running the latest version of your PassMark™ software?

Product	Version	Released
BatteryMon	v2.1 build 1000	26 Apr 07
BurnInTest for Linux	v1.0 build 1007	4 Oct 06
BurnInTest Professional for Windows	v5.3 build 1004	10 Apr 07
DiskCheckup	v2.0 build 1004	17 Jan 07
KeyboardTest	v2.2 build 1011	17 Jan 06
ModemTest	v1.3 build 1011	31 Aug 06
MonitorTest	v2.2 build 1006	13 Mar 06
OSCheck	v1.2 build 1000	26 May 05
PerformanceTest	v6.1 build 1002	3 Apr 07
SmartDisk DLL SDK	v1.0 build 1012	17 Jan 07
SoundCheck	v2.0 build 1001	5 May 02
TestLog	v3.0 build 1006	24 Apr 07
WirelessMon	v2.0 build 1011	26 Mar 07

© 2007 PassMark® Software Pty Ltd
Written and prepared by David Bolton (Marketing Manager)