Sapphire are proud to announce today that they've become the first board manufacturer to join Futuremark's Benchmark Development Program.

Their official PR has all the details, and Futuremark have also posted it up on their website.

Saratoga, California / Hong Kong - August 23rd, 2006 - Futuremark Corporation, a leading provider of system performance-analysis software and services for PCs, smartphones and other handheld devices, in joint cooperation with Hong Kong based Sapphire Technology Ltd, the world's leading manufacturer of ATI based video graphics accelerators and mainboards, announced today that Sapphire has become the first board manufacturer to join the 3DMark Benchmark Development Program.

The 3DMark Benchmark Development Program (BDP) enables Futuremark to build partnerships with leading hardware and technology manufacturers in order to design unbiased professional benchmark software. Futuremark provides BDP Members with specifications and pre-production versions of benchmarks and, in turn, evaluates the feedback provided by the Members.