PC BENCH (TM) VERSION 9.0 README.TXT
====================================

This is the README.TXT file for PC Bench version 9.0. You can view
this file from the DOS command line using the EDIT command. This file 
contains the PC Bench 9.0 license agreement, installation instructions, 
and important notes about PC Bench 9.0. Before you run PC Bench, you 
must first read and agree to the license agreement.

LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR ZIFF-DAVIS' PC BENCH (TM) 9.0
---------------------------------------------------

READ THIS AGREEMENT CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THE SOFTWARE EMBODIED IN THE 
PC BENCH 9.0 CD (TM) (OR DISKETTES, OR, IF DOWNLOADED OR CONTAINED AS PART OF 
A COLLECTION, IN THE PC BENCH 9.0 FILE(S)). Embodied in the PC Bench 9.0 
CD ("CD") (or diskettes, or, if downloaded or contained as part of a 
collection, in the PC Bench 9.0 file(s)) is the PC Bench 9.0 computer program 
and related documentation (the "Software"). Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, 
L.P., having a place of business at One Park Avenue, New York, New York 10016 
("Ziff") is the licensor under this Agreement and you are the licensee. By 
using the Software, in whole or in part, you agree to be bound by the terms 
of this Agreement. If you do not agree to the terms of this Agreement, 
promptly return the Software (or, if downloaded, delete the Software, or, if 
contained as part of a collection, cease all use of the software) to the 
Ziff-Davis Benchmark Operation at One Copley Parkway, Suite 510, 
Morrisville, North Carolina 27560. Title to the Software and all copyrights, 
trade secrets and other proprietary rights therein are owned by Ziff. All 
rights therein, except those expressly granted to you in this Agreement, 
are reserved by Ziff.

1.      Limited License

This Agreement grants you only limited rights to use the Software. Ziff 
grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Software on 
a single dedicated computer or on a file server networked with multiple PC 
computers for the sole purpose of conducting benchmark tests to measure the 
performance of computer hardware and operating system configurations. You 
have the right to make a single copy of the Software for archival purposes 
and the right to transfer a copy of the Software across a network only to the 
PC computers attached to the network. Ziff hereby grants you the right to 
publish benchmark test results obtained by you from your use of the Software 
provided that with the publication of each such result you: 

A.      Identify Ziff-Davis, the name and version number of the benchmark 
	Software used (i.e., Ziff-Davis' PC Bench (TM) Version 9.0);

B.      Identify the exact name, processor speed and type, amount of RAM, 
	amount of secondary RAM cache, if any, hard disk size, type of hard 
	disk controller, and size of hardware hard disk cache, if any, of the 
	PC used for the test (e.g., WXY Corp. Model 466 with 66-MHz Intel (R)
	486DX2-66 CPU, 8 MB of RAM, 64 KB RAM cache, 200 MB hard disk, IDE 
	controller, and no hardware disk cache); 
	
C.      Identify the exact video adapter name and refresh rate that produced 
	the result (e.g., XYZ Corp. XYZ Video adapter with a refresh rate of 
	72 Hz); 
	
D.      Identify the operating system version (e.g., MS-DOS (R) 5.0), size 
	and type of software disk cache, if any (e.g., SMARTDRV 2 MB cache), 
	video resolution and color depth (e.g., 800 by 600 pixels with 256 
	colors), and any other special conditions used to achieve the result 
	(e.g., disk compression utility ABC version 1.0 enabled); 
	
E.      State that all products used in the test were shipping versions 
	available to the general public;

F.      State that the test was performed without independent verification by 
	Ziff; and 

G.      Follow proper trademark usage and acknowledge Ziff's trademark rights 
	(e.g., "[ ] achieved a score of X DOSMark (TM) units on the 
	PC Bench (TM) 9.0 test. PC Bench and DOSMark are trademarks of 
	Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, L.P."). 

This Agreement and your rights hereunder shall automatically terminate if 
you fail to comply with any provision of this Agreement. Upon such 
termination, you agree to cease all use of the Software, to delete the 
Software, and to destroy all copies of the CD (or diskettes, or, if as part 
of a collection, to cease all use of the software) and other materials 
contained in this package in your possession or under your control, or, if 
downloaded, to destroy any and all copies of the Software in your possession 
or under your control.

2.      Additional Restrictions

A.      You shall not (and shall not permit other persons or entities to) 
	rent, lease, sell, sublicense, assign, or otherwise transfer the 
	Software or this Agreement. Any attempt to do so shall be void 
	and of no effect.

B.      You shall not (and shall not permit other persons or entities to) 
	reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble, merge, modify, include in 
	other software or translate the Software, or use the Software for 
	any commercial purposes, except for the publication of test results, 
	as provided above.

C.      You shall not (and shall not permit other persons or entities to) 
	remove or obscure Ziff's copyright, trademark or other proprietary 
	notices or legends from any of the materials contained in this 
	package or downloaded or on any collection of which the Software is 
	a part.

3.      Limited Warranty and Limited Liability

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS 
OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY 
AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE RESULTS AND 
PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE IS ASSUMED BY YOU, AND ZIFF ASSUMES NO 
RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACCURACY OR APPLICATION OF OR ERRORS OR OMISSIONS IN 
THE SOFTWARE. IN NO EVENT SHALL ZIFF BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, 
SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR 
INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ZIFF HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE 
LIKELIHOOD OF SUCH DAMAGES OCCURRING. ZIFF SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS, 
DAMAGES OR COSTS, ARISING OUT OF, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, LOST PROFITS OR 
REVENUE, LOSS OF USE OF THE SOFTWARE, LOSS OF DATA OR EQUIPMENT, THE COSTS 
OF RECOVERING SOFTWARE, DATA OR EQUIPMENT, THE COST OF SUBSTITUTE SOFTWARE 
OR DATA, CLAIMS BY THIRD PARTIES, OR OTHER SIMILAR COSTS.

THE ONLY WARRANTY MADE BY ZIFF IS THAT THE ORIGINAL PHYSICAL MEDIA IN WHICH 
THE SOFTWARE IS EMBODIED AND WHICH IS DISTRIBUTED BY ZIFF SHALL BE FREE OF 
DEFECTS IN MATERIALS AND WORKMANSHIP. ZIFF'S ENTIRE LIABILITY AND THE USER'S 
EXCLUSIVE REMEDY SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE REPLACEMENT OF THE ORIGINAL PHYSICAL 
MEDIA IF DEFECTIVE. THE WARRANTIES AND REMEDIES SET FORTH HEREIN ARE 
EXCLUSIVE AND IN LIEU OF ALL OTHERS, ORAL OR WRITTEN, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. NO 
ZIFF AGENT OR EMPLOYEE, OR THIRD PARTY, IS AUTHORIZED TO MAKE ANY 
MODIFICATION OR ADDITION TO THIS WARRANTY.

SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR 
LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES; SO THE ABOVE 
LIMITATIONS OR EXCLUSIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

4.      U.S. Government Restricted Rights

The Software is licensed subject to RESTRICTED RIGHTS. Use, duplication or 
disclosure by the Government or any person or entity acting on its behalf is 
subject to restrictions as set forth in subdivision (c)(1)(ii) of the Rights 
in Technical Data and Computer Software Clause at DFARS (48 CFR 252.227-7013) 
for DoD contracts, in paragraphs (c)(1) and (2) of the Commercial Computer 
Software-Restricted Rights clause in the FAR (48 CFR 52.227-19) for civilian 
agencies, or in other comparable agency clauses. The contractor/manufacturer 
is the Ziff-Davis Benchmark Operation, One Copley Parkway, Suite 510, 
Morrisville, North Carolina 27560. 

5.      General Provisions

Nothing in this Agreement constitutes a waiver of Ziff's rights under U.S 
copyright laws or any other Federal, state, local or foreign law. You are 
responsible for installation, management, and operation of the Software. 
This Agreement shall be construed, interpreted and governed under New York 
law. If any provision of this Agreement shall be held by a court of competent 
jurisdiction to be illegal, invalid or unenforceable, the remaining 
provisions shall remain in full force and effect. 


INSTALLING PC BENCH (TM) VERSION 9.0
------------------------------------
To install PC Bench 9.0:

1.      Execute SETUP.EXE from the CD-ROM or from the first diskette.

	For example, if you're using the CD-ROM and the CD-ROM drive is 
	the D drive, you would enter:

	D:\ZDBENCH\PCB90\SETUP.EXE

2.	The setup program then asks where you want to install PC Bench's
	files.

3.	Press Enter to accept the default directory (\ZDBENCH\PCB90) or type
	the pathname for the directory where you wish to install PC Bench.

	You can install the files anywhere you like, but we suggest you use
	the default directory name, \ZDBENCH\PCB90, for compatibility with
	other Ziff Davis benchmarks.

To start PC Bench 9.0, execute PCBENCH.EXE. For example, if you installed 
PC Bench in C:\ZDBENCH\PCB90, you'd use the following commands to start 
PC Bench:

	CD C:\ZDBENCH\PCB90
	PCBENCH.EXE


IMPORTANT PC BENCH 9.0 NOTES
----------------------------
The following list provides information you need to know BEFORE you run 
PC Bench. Read these notes before running the software.

1.      You must read and agree to the license information in the front of 
	this file before running PC Bench. If you do not agree to the 
	licensing information, delete all copies of PC Bench and then return
	the media on which you received PC Bench (or cease using PC Bench 
	and delete all local copies of it if you received it as part of a 
	collection containing other software) and all accompanying materials 
	(including any documentation) to ZDBOp at the following address:
	
	Ziff-Davis Benchmark Operation
	One Copley Parkway, Suite 510
	Morrisville, NC 27560
	
2.	To install and run PC Bench, you need:

	- A PC running MS-DOS(R) version 3.1 (or compatible) or 
	  higher. For best results, use MS-DOS version 5.0 (or 
	  compatible) or higher.

	- A 386 (or compatible) CPU or better.
	  NOTE:	While you can run PC Bench on a PC with a 286 CPU, you 
		won't be able to run all of PC Bench's tests. PC Bench 9.0 
		requires a minimum of a 386 CPU.

	- A minimum of 4 MB of free disk space to install the PC Bench 
	  files and run PC Bench.

	- A minimum of 30 MB of free disk space on each disk drive you want 
	  to test.

	- A minimum of 524 KB of free conventional memory if you plan to
	  run all the PC Bench tests.

	- A minimum of 2 MB of free extended memory to run the DOSMark suite.

	- A VGA (or better) display adapter.

3.      PC Bench version 9.0 is the most recent release of this product. 
	This release differs from previous releases in many important ways. 
	As a result, you can meaningfully compare PC Bench 9.0 results only 
	with other PC Bench 9.0 results. Do not attempt to compare version 
	9.0 results with results from earlier versions of PC Bench.

4.      PC Bench runs DOS-based tests. Its results will not necessarily 
	reflect your PC's performance when running Windows-based 
	applications.

5.      ZDBOp tested PC Bench 9.0 with the EMM386 and HIMEM.SYS memory 
	managers that ship with DOS. While PC Bench may run if you have 
	another memory manager loaded on your PC, we don't recommend using 
	PC Bench as a tool for testing or comparing the performance of memory 
	managers.

6.	The EMM386 NOEMS switch may cause problems for PC Bench tests that 
	run in protected mode. You should remove the NOEMS switch before 
	running PC Bench.

7.	If PC Bench hangs when running a test, after rebooting, run
	either CHKDISK or SCANDISK from the DOS command line. Also, delete
	the DOS temporary files PC Bench creates in \TEMP, \TMP, or \.

8.	The minimum file handles requirement for PC Bench 9.0 is 30. Make 
	sure the FILES= line in the CONFIG.SYS file is "FILES=30."

9.	We didn't test PC Bench 9.0 under any operating systems other 
	than DOS.

10.	PC Bench 9.0 has two new command line arguments:

	NOCPUCHECK	PC Bench doesn't attempt to identify the CPU type.

	NOSYSCHECK	PC Bench doesn't gather any system information.

11.	With proper test procedures, PC Bench delivers highly repeatable
	results. To get the best such results, reboot your PC immediately 
	before running PC Bench. If you're running any of the disk tests, 
	compress and defragment your PC's hard disk immediately before 
	rebooting your PC and running PC Bench.

	For the most repeatable results, run PC Bench in batch mode from 
	the DOS prompt using the following command from the directory
	where you installed PC Bench:

	PCBENCH AUTO filename.ini

	For example, if you installed PC Bench in C:\ZDBENCH\PCB90, then 
	you'd use the following command:

	C:\ZDBENCH\PCB90\PCBENCH AUTO filename.ini.

	The file named "filename.ini" supplies PC Bench's environment 
	settings, the tests PC Bench will run, and the names of its 
	results files.

	We've included a sample RUNPCB.INI in the main PC Bench directory.


ON-LINE DOCUMENTATION
---------------------
PC Bench 9.0 comes with the following documentation:

	README.TXT
	==========
	This file contains the PC Bench license agreement, installation
	instructions, and important notes about PC Bench. You should
	read this information before you run PC Bench. The README.TXT
	file is in the \ZDBENCH\PCB90 directory on the CD-ROM.

	Understanding and Using PC Bench (TM) 9.0
	=========================================
	PC Bench comes with a copy of its installation and user's 
	manual, Understanding and Using PC Bench (TM) 9.0, in electronic
	format on the CD-ROM. (You can view select topics from this 
	same manual on-line via the PC Bench Help facility.)

	The CD-ROM includes three different formats of the manual. 
	You can find these manual files in the \ZDBENCH\DOCS directory 
	on the CD-ROM:

	- PCB90.DOC is a Microsoft (R) Word for Windows (TM) 6.0a 
	  version of the manual.
	- PCB90.RTF is a Rich Text Format (RTF) version of the manual. 
	- PCB90.TXT is an ASCII text version of the manual.

	If you downloaded PC Bench from ZiffNet, you'll find the Word for 
	Windows copy of the manual in the PC Bench library on our ZDBENCH 
	forum. Download the file PCBDOC.EXE. That file is a self-extracting 
	file. To get the PCB90.DOC file, execute PCBDOC.EXE.

	PC Bench on-line help
	=====================
	You can access on-line help from the main window once you start 
	PC Bench by selecting either the Contents option from the Help 
	drop-down menu or the Help function button. Either way, PC Bench 
	opens a window containing a list of available topics.


CONTACTING ZDBOP
----------------
If you have problems with PC Bench, you can report those problems to us using 
our Problem Report Form. You can find the Problem Report Form in the user's 
manual and on ZiffNet in the ZD Benchmark forum library 1-General.

To submit a report, you can:

- Post the form on the ZD Benchmark forum on ZiffNet in library 4-PC Bench.

- Fax the form directly to PC Bench Technical Support on (919 380 2879).

- Mail the form to us at the following address:

  Ziff-Davis Benchmark Operation
  One Copley Parkway, Suite 510
  Morrisville, North Carolina 27560
  Attn.: PC Bench Technical Support


KNOWN PROBLEMS WITH PC BENCH 9.0
--------------------------------
The following is a list of known problems with PC Bench 9.0.

1.	After extensive use in a single session, it is possible for PC Bench
	to run out of free memory. When this situation occurs, PC Bench
	displays a dialog box indicating that it cannot allocate enough
	memory to satisfy the current request. When you select "OK", PC Bench
	terminates. You should always save your results immediately after
	running tests to avoid losing them should PC Bench run out of memory.

2.      When you export or print results or the disclosure form, the 
	information isn't column aligned, while it is when PC Bench displays 
	it.

3.	The Include Current Results from the Chart menu doesn't affect the 
	Table of Results or exporting and printing results.

4.	PC Bench doesn't completely mimic Windows' user interface conventions.
	For example, when you press Alt when a menu bar item is selected,
	PC Bench doesn't deselect that item.

5.	PC Bench may hang at startup when running on a NexGen NX586 chip. To
	get around this problem use the NOSYSCHECK option.

6.	Vertical and horizontal scrolling may be erratic.

7.	The Disk Mix may hang on Intel 365SL chipset based laptops when you
	have PCMCIA services drivers loaded.  To work around this problem, remove
	PCMCIA drivers before starting PC Bench.


TRADEMARKS
----------

DOSMark (TM) and PC Bench (TM) are trademarks of Ziff-Davis Publishing 
	Company, L.P.


COPYRIGHTS
----------
PC Bench 9.0 Copyright 1994. WinBench 95 Version 1.0 Copyright 1994. 
Winstone 95 Version 1.0 Copyright 1994. Ziff-Davis Publishing 
Company, L.P. All rights reserved.

