diff --git a/pregelix/pom.xml b/pregelix/pom.xml
index de5ef3b..d748d1f 100644
--- a/pregelix/pom.xml
+++ b/pregelix/pom.xml
@@ -12,8 +12,7 @@
  ! WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
  ! See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
  ! limitations under the License.
- !-->
-<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
+ !--><project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <groupId>edu.uci.ics.hyracks</groupId>
   <artifactId>pregelix</artifactId>
@@ -22,7 +21,7 @@
   <name>pregelix</name>
 
   <properties>
-    <jvm.extraargs />
+    <jvm.extraargs/>
   </properties>
 
   <profiles>
@@ -107,6 +106,7 @@
     <module>pregelix-runtime</module>
     <module>pregelix-core</module>
     <module>pregelix-example</module>
+    <module>pregelix-benchmark</module>
     <module>pregelix-dist</module>
   </modules>
 </project>
diff --git a/pregelix/pregelix-benchmark/pom.xml b/pregelix/pregelix-benchmark/pom.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4d7d456
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pregelix/pregelix-benchmark/pom.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+<?xml version="1.0"?>
+<project
+	xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd"
+	xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
+	<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
+	<parent>
+		<artifactId>pregelix</artifactId>
+		<groupId>edu.uci.ics.hyracks</groupId>
+		<version>0.2.10-SNAPSHOT</version>
+	</parent>
+
+	<artifactId>pregelix-benchmark</artifactId>
+	<name>pregelix-benchmark</name>
+	<url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
+	<dependencies>
+		<dependency>
+			<groupId>junit</groupId>
+			<artifactId>junit</artifactId>
+			<version>3.8.1</version>
+			<scope>test</scope>
+		</dependency>
+		<dependency>
+			<groupId>org.apache.giraph</groupId>
+			<artifactId>giraph-core</artifactId>
+			<version>1.0.0</version>
+			<scope>compile</scope>
+		</dependency>
+		<dependency>
+			<groupId>edu.uci.ics.hyracks</groupId>
+			<artifactId>hyracks-hdfs-core</artifactId>
+			<version>0.2.10-SNAPSHOT</version>
+			<type>jar</type>
+			<scope>compile</scope>
+		</dependency>
+	</dependencies>
+</project>
diff --git a/pregelix/pregelix-benchmark/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/benchmark/PageRankVertex.java b/pregelix/pregelix-benchmark/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/benchmark/PageRankVertex.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..04c29de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pregelix/pregelix-benchmark/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/benchmark/PageRankVertex.java
@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2009-2013 by The Regents of the University of California
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * you may obtain a copy of the License from
+ * 
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ * 
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package edu.uci.ics.pregelix.benchmark;
+
+import org.apache.giraph.graph.Vertex;
+import org.apache.hadoop.io.DoubleWritable;
+import org.apache.hadoop.io.FloatWritable;
+import org.apache.hadoop.io.VLongWritable;
+
+/**
+ * Demonstrates the basic Pregel PageRank implementation.
+ */
+public class PageRankVertex extends Vertex<VLongWritable, DoubleWritable, FloatWritable, DoubleWritable> {
+
+    public static final String ITERATIONS = "HyracksPageRankVertex.iteration";
+    private final DoubleWritable vertexValue = new DoubleWritable();
+    private final DoubleWritable msg = new DoubleWritable();
+    private int maxIteration = -1;
+
+    @Override
+    public void compute(Iterable<DoubleWritable> msgIterator) {
+        if (maxIteration < 0) {
+            maxIteration = getContext().getConfiguration().getInt(ITERATIONS, 10);
+        }
+        if (getSuperstep() == 1) {
+            vertexValue.set(1.0 / getTotalNumVertices());
+        }
+        if (getSuperstep() >= 2 && getSuperstep() <= maxIteration) {
+            double sum = 0;
+            for (DoubleWritable msg : msgIterator) {
+                sum += msg.get();
+            }
+            vertexValue.set((0.15 / getTotalNumVertices()) + 0.85 * sum);
+        }
+
+        if (getSuperstep() >= 1 && getSuperstep() < maxIteration) {
+            long edges = getNumEdges();
+            msg.set(vertexValue.get() / edges);
+            sendMessageToAllEdges(msg);
+        } else {
+            voteToHalt();
+        }
+    }
+
+}
diff --git a/pregelix/pregelix-benchmark/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/benchmark/TextPageRankInputFormat.java b/pregelix/pregelix-benchmark/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/benchmark/TextPageRankInputFormat.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3d85f66
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pregelix/pregelix-benchmark/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/benchmark/TextPageRankInputFormat.java
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2009-2013 by The Regents of the University of California
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * you may obtain a copy of the License from
+ * 
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ * 
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package edu.uci.ics.pregelix.benchmark;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.Map.Entry;
+
+import org.apache.giraph.edge.Edge;
+import org.apache.giraph.edge.MapMutableEdge;
+import org.apache.giraph.io.formats.TextVertexInputFormat;
+import org.apache.hadoop.io.DoubleWritable;
+import org.apache.hadoop.io.FloatWritable;
+import org.apache.hadoop.io.Text;
+import org.apache.hadoop.io.VLongWritable;
+import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.InputSplit;
+import org.apache.hadoop.mapreduce.TaskAttemptContext;
+
+public class TextPageRankInputFormat extends TextVertexInputFormat<VLongWritable, DoubleWritable, FloatWritable> {
+
+    @Override
+    public TextVertexReader createVertexReader(InputSplit split, TaskAttemptContext context) throws IOException {
+        return new TextVertexReaderFromEachLine() {
+            String[] items;
+
+            @Override
+            protected VLongWritable getId(Text line) throws IOException {
+                items = line.toString().split(" ");
+                return new VLongWritable(Long.parseLong(items[0]));
+            }
+
+            @Override
+            protected DoubleWritable getValue(Text line) throws IOException {
+                return null;
+            }
+
+            @Override
+            protected Iterable<Edge<VLongWritable, FloatWritable>> getEdges(Text line) throws IOException {
+                List<Edge<VLongWritable, FloatWritable>> edges = new ArrayList<Edge<VLongWritable, FloatWritable>>();
+                Map<VLongWritable, FloatWritable> edgeMap = new HashMap<VLongWritable, FloatWritable>();
+                for (int i = 1; i < items.length; i++) {
+                    edgeMap.put(new VLongWritable(Long.parseLong(items[i])), null);
+                }
+                for (Entry<VLongWritable, FloatWritable> entry : edgeMap.entrySet()) {
+                    MapMutableEdge<VLongWritable, FloatWritable> edge = new MapMutableEdge<VLongWritable, FloatWritable>();
+                    edge.setEntry(entry);
+                    edge.setValue(null);
+                    edges.add(edge);
+                }
+                return edges;
+            }
+
+        };
+    }
+}
diff --git a/pregelix/pregelix-dist/pom.xml b/pregelix/pregelix-dist/pom.xml
index f0551a6..cec6efe 100644
--- a/pregelix/pregelix-dist/pom.xml
+++ b/pregelix/pregelix-dist/pom.xml
@@ -63,5 +63,10 @@
 			<artifactId>pregelix-example</artifactId>
 			<version>0.2.10-SNAPSHOT</version>
 		</dependency>
+		<dependency>
+                        <groupId>edu.uci.ics.hyracks</groupId>
+                        <artifactId>pregelix-benchmark</artifactId>
+                        <version>0.2.10-SNAPSHOT</version>
+                </dependency>
 	</dependencies>
 </project>
diff --git a/pregelix/pregelix-example/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/example/data/VLongNormalizedKeyComputer.java b/pregelix/pregelix-example/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/example/data/VLongNormalizedKeyComputer.java
index 90065c2..44d23a4 100644
--- a/pregelix/pregelix-example/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/example/data/VLongNormalizedKeyComputer.java
+++ b/pregelix/pregelix-example/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/pregelix/example/data/VLongNormalizedKeyComputer.java
@@ -14,13 +14,8 @@
  */
 package edu.uci.ics.pregelix.example.data;
 
-import java.io.DataInput;
-import java.io.DataInputStream;
-
-import org.apache.hadoop.io.WritableUtils;
-
 import edu.uci.ics.pregelix.api.graph.NormalizedKeyComputer;
-import edu.uci.ics.pregelix.api.util.ResetableByteArrayInputStream;
+import edu.uci.ics.pregelix.example.utils.SerDeUtils;
 
 /**
  * @author yingyib
@@ -31,14 +26,10 @@
     private static final int NON_NEGATIVE_INT_MASK = (2 << 30);
     private static final int NEGATIVE_LONG_MASK = (0 << 30);
 
-    private ResetableByteArrayInputStream bis = new ResetableByteArrayInputStream();
-    private DataInput dis = new DataInputStream(bis);
-
     @Override
     public int getNormalizedKey(byte[] bytes, int start, int length) {
         try {
-            bis.setByteArray(bytes, start);
-            long value = WritableUtils.readVLong(dis);
+            long value = SerDeUtils.readVLong(bytes, start, length);
             int highValue = (int) (value >> 32);
             if (highValue > 0) {
                 /**