A common requirement of computer vendor's competitive performance analysis departments is to measure and report on the performance characteristics of another vendor's system. In many cases the amount of prior knowledge concerning the competitor's systcm is limited to sales brochures and non-technical publications. Availability of the system for benchmarking is minimal; there is little choice concerning memory and I/O configurations; and time to complete the project is short. A project of this nature is not, however, unique to computer vendors. Many users of computer systems that want to better understand a system's performance characteristics before deciding on a purchase, are also faced with similar restrictions.