Evans & Sutherland (E&S(R)) (NASDAQ: ESCC) Wednesday announced that BOXX Technologies, CTL Corp., Sys Technology, and TriStar Computer Corp. have selected E&S graphic accelerator boards for their NT workstations.

Now E&S Lightning 1200(TM), a low-cost, fully featured REALimage(R)-based board, and E&S Tornado 3000(TM), the company’s most powerful board, will give the customers of these OEMs increased OpenGL quality and performance at an affordable price.

“E&S is delighted that these four leading OEMs have selected the Lightning 1200 and Tornado 3000 for their workstations,” said Pratish Shah, vice president of marketing for E&S Workstation Graphics Division. “Until now, many graphics professionals had to make a difficult `either/or’ choice when choosing a workstation.

“Either they got the performance they wanted at a high cost, or they bought workstations with low-end 2D/3D accelerators based on consumer chipsets with poor OpenGL performance or limited OpenGL functionality. With E&S’s cards, users don’t have to compromise - they can get a top-rate workstation with a quality graphics card that fits their budget and needs.”

“Complex 3D projects require the best in graphics board technology,” said Todd Bryant, BOXX Technologies president. “Now, thanks to E&S’s REALimage technology, our users can create quickly without limits.”

BOXX Technologies is a leading provider of hardware and software tools for digital content creation and distribution on the Microsoft(R) Windows NT(R) operating system for the 3D, animation, film, and HD broadcast markets. The BOXX suite of solutions, which include 3DBOXX(TM), RenderBOXX(TM), and FusionBOXX(TM) HD, are complete systems for 3D, rendering, film, and HDTV.

Fortified with E&S’s accelerators, BOXX workstations greatly reduce production times and increase output quality.

CTL Corp.

“Our users have commented that CTL 3D workstations perform better and are more affordable than Intergraph and SGI,” said Erik F. Stromquist, vice president, CTL Corp. “CTL couldn’t have offered users these quality workstations at such cost-efficient prices without the help of E&S REALimage technology.”

CTL Corp. is a global company with businesses in OEM and manufacturing,

electronics, and communication products. CTL’s Proton 3D-500S is the new cost-effective 3D Solution for design professionals. This workstation includes the E&S Lightning 1200 3D graphics accelerators; the Intel 440 BX Motherboard, with PIII 500 CPU MHz processor; and plenty of memory.

CTL Electronic 3D-600D is the new, top of the line, full featured, high performance 3D Solution for creative professionals. This workstation includes the E&S Tornado 3000 3D card; the Intel 440 BX Motherboard, with PIII 600 CPU MHz processor; and an 18.1 SCSI HDD.

Sys Technology

“E&S has the industry reputation and quality products that are important to our customers,” said Ed Leckliter, senior vice president, Sys Technology. “With E&S’s REALimage cards, Sys Techonology can offer its customers a workstation that gives them the power to design 3D images without limits.”

Sys Technology is a nationally renowned, high-end systems integrator that builds the world’s fastest x86-based personal computers and workstations - SYS Cold-Fusion desktop PCs and SYS Cold-Fusion workstations.

The company’s product line includes Intel(R) and AMD(R) processor-based systems. SYS markets its systems under the following series names: SYS TaskMaster(TM) (affordable desktop), SYS Performance(TM) (high-end desktop), SYS Cold-Fusion(TM) (super-cooled speed-enhanced desktop) SYS PowerHouse(TM) (workstation), and SYS PowerNet(TM) (server).

SYS recently added E&S’s Tornado 3000 accelerator as an option for its Cold-Fusion and PowerHouse workstations. As a result, SYS users can now have increased performance for developing 3D graphics.

TriStar Computer Corp.

“TriStar is pleased to work with such an experienced company as E&S,” said Patrick Maderia, president & chief executive officer, of TriStar Computer Corp. “TriStar workstations are tailored to meet the needs of design professionals.

“With E&S’s top quality REALimage accelerators installed in our workstations, our users have more of a choice of what performance/price level they need to carry out projects.”

TriStar Computer Corp. is a privately-held original equipment manufacturer of high-performance Windows NT graphics workstations and servers. TriStar offers four major product lines, with various models and custom configurations designed to meet an array of user needs: StarStation, PowerStation, StudioStation, StarServer.

These systems are custom built for professionals in graphics-intensive disciplines, including: architectural design, mechanical design, engineering, desktop publishing, 3D animation, digital video editing, Internet web site development, video post production and software development.

About E&S Lightning 1200

The E&S Lightning 1200 graphics board is powerful yet cost-effective. This card comes with OpenGL acceleration performance for mid-range 2D and 3D applications. Key benefits to design engineers include:

– Up to 4 million triangles per second — Support for sustained textured pixel fill rates of 70 Megapixels

per second

– E&S Dynamicgeometry(TM) software drivers, which fully exploit

Intel(R)Pentium(R) III processors’ Streaming SIMD extensions

About E&S Tornado 3000

E&S Tornado 3000 graphics board provides design engineers with the high performance needed to easily create complex 3D-models using CAD/CAM, visualization, and animation software packages. The E&S Tornado 3000, the company’s most powerful graphics board, is based on E&S’s REALimage(R) 3000 technology.

REALimage technology provides advanced graphics features needed by OEM workstation customers:

– Extra texture memory — Up to 5 million primitives per second — Support for sustained pixel fill rates of 100 Megapixels per

second for both bilinear and trilinear textured polygons

– Dual screen support

– E&S Dynamicgeometry software drivers, which fully exploit the

Intel(R)Pentium(R) III processors’ Streaming SIMD extensions

About Evans & Sutherland

Evans & Sutherland develops and manufactures hardware and software to produce highly realistic 3D images. E&S business units deliver high-quality visual systems for simulation and training in defense and commercial applications, graphics systems for high-performance workstations, and related applications throughout the world.

Through its acquisition of San Jose-based AccelGraphics in June 1998, E&S expanded its workstation graphics offerings to include board-level products.
E&S is a registered trademark, and E&S Tornado 3000, E&S Lightning 1200, and DYNAMICgeometry are trademarks of Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp. Salt Lake City. All other trade names or marks are the properties of their respective owners.

The leading producer of chips which integrate DRAM and logic, and producer of the world’s first 128-bit single-chip multimedia accelerators for personal computers, announced today that Sony has incorporated NeoMagic’s MagicGraph128XD(TM) into the Sony PCG-705 and PCG-707 multimedia VAIO(TM) notebook computers.”Our new PCG-705 and PCG-707 VAIO notebooks provide a mobile multimedia platform for the consumer, home office or business computer user,” noted Tac Sugiyama, director of marketing for Sony Information Technologies of America.

“Using the latest in the MagicGraph128 family we gain the unique combination of the best in graphics performance and video features, and also the smallest form-factor and lowest-power consumption available in multimedia accelerators. That means our customers get all the best multimedia features in a machine that is only 1-1/2 inches high, and weighs just over 5 pounds with battery,” he added.

According to Niall Bartlett, vice president of marketing for NeoMagic, “The MagicGraph128 series is the only family of 128-bit multimedia accelerators in production for notebook computers. With the new MagicGraph128XD, Sony has selected our premier product that supports high-resolution 800×600 and 1024×768 LCD displays with industry-leading performance and video features, all in a single-chip multimedia solution.”

About the MagicGraph128XD(TM) accelerator

The latest member of the MagicGraph128 family of multimedia accelerators has been developed by NeoMagic to serve the specific display needs of the industry’s most exciting multimedia notebook computers. The MagicGraph128XD features the latest technology innovations including:

–Integrated DRAM technology: NeoMagic produced over a million accelerators with its proprietary MagicWare(TM) technology. With this technology NeoMagic is able to integrate large DRAM memory with analog and logic circuitry, an industry breakthrough which provides multimedia capabilities in a single chip solution. The MagicGraph128XD provides the most extensive DRAM integration of any peripheral logic component in production worldwide.

–High Performance: NeoMagic’s 128-bit architecture exceeds even the newest 64-bit notebook graphics performance, breaking the performance bottleneck between the graphics accelerator and its memory. New video acceleration and Bus Master capabilities accelerate MPEG video and Direct3D(TM) three-dimensional games for the latest MMX(TM) powered notebooks.

–Reduced Power Demand: NeoMagic’s single-chip integration reduces power consumption, saving over two watts of battery power compared with current 64-bit graphics solutions. With their low power dissipation the MagicGraph128 chips run cooler than alternative solutions and contribute to higher system reliability.

–Higher Portability: Delivered in a single 176 pin package the MagicGraph128XD multimedia accelerator saves significant board space over competing solutions that may require up to seven chips to implement 1024 x 768 color LCD panel support in a full-featured multimedia notebook.

About Sony

Based in San Jose, Sony Information Technologies of America is a divisional company of Sony Electronics that markets Sony-branded computer products, including Sony VAIO(TM) PCs, Trinitron(R) displays, digital still cameras and other multimedia products through distributors, resellers and consumer retailers. Sony Electronics’ annual sales for fiscal 1996 exceeded $9.6 billion.
About NeoMagic

NeoMagic Corp. (NASDAQ:NMGC), based in Santa Clara, is the first company to design and deliver integrated DRAM, complex logic and analog circuits in a single chip. The company’s proprietary MagicWare(TM) technology takes systems integration to a new level by adding DRAM into “system on a chip” solutions.

NeoMagic is dedicated to bringing leading-edge performance to mobile computers, without compromising power consumption or space.
NeoMagic, MagicGraph128, MagicGraph128XD and MagicWare are trademarks of NeoMagic Corp. Trinitron(R) and VAIO(TM) are trademarks of Sony Electronics. DirectX(TM) is a trademark of Microsoft Corp. NeoMagic and SONY disclaim any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. Other notations of (TM) or (R) are trademarks of their respective firms.

Hammer(R) 50/32 from Tharas Systems, Inc., based here, has been selected from a field of hundreds of candidates as a finalist in the EDN Magazine 11th Annual Innovation of the Year Awards Competition. The awards program, sponsored by EDN Magazine, is dedicated to honoring outstanding engineering products in the electronics industry.

Products/technologies qualifying for a 2000 EDN Innovation award must have been introduced and commercially marketed from January 1 through December 31, 2000. Thirteen major product/technology areas were eligible for consideration, including Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools, the appropriate category for Hammer 50/32.

“Hammer is innovative and different,” says Gabe Moretti, EDA and ASIC editor at EDN. It appears to be able to decrease the verification time and cost for system-on-chip design. It also appears to be new technology and not a copy of the technology that has been used over the last 15 years.”

Hammer improves a logic designer’s ability to efficiently create and implement system on chip (SOC) designs by accelerating simulation and eliminating the verification bottleneck. Designers can continue to use familiar verification tools, including Verilog Hardware Description Language (HDL)-based simulators, debugging and testbench-generation software and C language models.

“It is a great honor to be recognized for the innovation involved in creating a completely new approach to RTL acceleration,” adds Steve Carlson, chief executive officer at Tharas Systems. “To be a finalist out of 300 EDA companies is truly a great achievement.”

Finalist products in each category were selected by a panel of EDN’s technical editors.  Winning products will be announced at an awards banquet Monday, April 9, at the Pan Pacific Hotel in San Francisco, and in the April 26 issue of EDN Magazine. ABOUT EDN MAGAZINE

EDN, the premier design magazine of the electronics industry, is published by Cahners Business Information. Headquartered in Newton, Mass., it serves the vital information needs of the design engineers and engineering managers worldwide. The EDN franchise includes EDN, EDN Europe, EDN Asia, EDN China, EDN Japan and EDN Access, the EOEM’s premier publication Web Site.

About Tharas Systems

Tharas Systems, named for the Sanskrit word that means rapid progress or velocity, is developing easy-to-use hardware accelerators for the register transfer level (RTL) of electronics design that fit within an existing verification environment. Founded in 1998, it is privately held and funded by venture capital and private investors from throughout the electronics industry.
Hammer 50/32 is a registered trademark of Tharas Systems Inc. Tharas acknowledges trademarks or registered trademarks of other organizations for their respective products and services.

NeoParadigm Labs, Inc., (NPL) Monday announced the first in a family of video accelerator engines that will set a new price/performance point for videophones. The NP501 video accelerator is the first in a family of system-level ICs based on NPL’s RapidVideo proprietary architecture designed for optimum video communication in consumer applications. Targeting video phone applications, the NP501 supports H.324 standards for video conferencing over analog telephones lines (POTS). The application specific device has been designed for highest system flexibility at the lowest system bill of materials (BOM) cost, to enable the most cost-effective solution in the market. The video accelerator will be used in videophones that will be on store shelves at less than half the current price of $600. The videophones will be available in retail stores in early 1999. “This is the first in a family of video products from NeoParadigm Labs. We soon expect to offer additions to our RapidVideo family targeting a host of new emerging consumer video communications applications,” said Bettina Briz, vice president of marketing. “Our video accelerators will enable mainstream consumer multimedia communications in the home and office at a cost consumers can afford.” First Customer Announced for Videophone IC Royal Information Electronics, a leading Taiwanese company that designs, manufactures and distributes PC monitors and other consumer electronics equipment in the US, Europe and Asia, is the first customer for the NP501. They recently announced plans for the manufacture and distribution of their videophone in Taiwan. Royal’s videophone uses the NP501 video accelerator engine. CC Lee, president of Royal Information Electronics, said “Our partnership with NeoParadigm Labs has proven to be very successful. Together, we are bringing to market a videophone that most consumers will be able to afford. The NP501 video accelerator is at the heart of the design providing the image processing necessary for excellent visual communications.” Overview of the RapidVideo Architecture The RapidVideo architecture includes hardware acceleration for all video operations including encode, decode, filtering and display. Intelligent rate control and buffer management provides consistent bit rates for the communications channel. Proprietary input video image filtering reduces input camera noise and produces a natural looking coded picture. A de-blocking output filter improves the incoming image quality prior to display. Complete system implementation is kept at a low BOM cost, by using an inexpensive microprocessor as a host computer and EDO DRAM for local frame storage. In addition, the NP501 interfaces to the industry standard 16-bit YCRCB 4:2:2 data format for digital video inputs. It also supports a broad array of display types, both analog and digital, and is specifically optimized to provide direct interface to low cost “picture on glass” type LCD panels. Key features of the RapidVideo, NP501 Video Phone solution are: o Simultaneous encode/decode at 30fps, QCIF to enable high quality full color over normal phone lines o Dedicated hardware processing blocks guarantee Video CODEC performance regardless of other features used o Fully supports H.263 Advanced Prediction Mode and Unrestricted Motion Vector Modes which improves image quality at low bitrates o Provides direct drive to TFT LCD Panel including scan controls and analog RGB outputs which results in a lower system BOM cost by allowing use of lower cost displays o RapidVideo software and hardware provide the system developer with a solution to enable fastest time to market, with easy end system differentiation. o PIP, Self-View, Zoom capabilities, Graphics display and Display background control allows end-user feature differentiation by the equipment manufacturer. o Enables consumer priced, H.324 video phone solutions. Evaluation Kits for Customers The RapidVideo evaluation kit is a complete reference system for a videophone. It includes an evaluation board with the NP501, a bill of material, PCB schematics, Gerber files, and software implementing the ITU-R H.324 standard. Included with the reference software is RapidVideo API which enables system manufacturers to develop a customized videophone. Price and Availability The NP501 video accelerator is available now for sampling. Volume pricing is $55 per unit in quantities of 10,000. The complete NP501 Evaluation Kit is also available directly from NPL. The product is available through NPL’s direct sales offices in US, Taiwan and Japan. NeoParadigm Labs, Inc., (NPL), a privately held company founded in December 1995, supplies complex system-level ICs to the electronics industry. Its integrated product development processes and systems-level expertise offer total turnkey solutions for the communications and consumer markets in a fraction of the time of traditional IC houses. NPL is headquartered in San Jose, California, and has sales offices in Taiwan and Japan.

inSilicon Corporation (Nasdaq:INSN), a leading provider of communications semiconductor intellectual property (IP), today announced that Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. has completed a license for the company’s JVX(TM) acceleration technology for use in Java(TM)-based consumer applications.

Sanyo will utilize the advanced Java acceleration technology from inSilicon as part of the company’s ongoing emphasis to provide optimized system-on-chip (SoC) solutions to customers. Specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

“Sanyo Electric recognizes inSilicon’s pioneering technology leadership in IP-based Java acceleration,” said Akira Shirakawa, Senior Manager, System LSI Division of Sanyo Electronics. “This agreement allows us to further advance our utilization of state-of-the-art, enabling technologies and deliver valuable innovation and performance features to our customers.”

“Java acceleration will be a critical capability for enhancing the user experience and market acceptance of next-generation wireless Internet devices,” said Barry Hoberman, Chief Operating Officer of inSilicon. “As a visionary, key technology early adopter, Sanyo’s deployment of JVX is a demonstration of their intent to take a leadership position in providing cost-effective, high-performance Java acceleration solutions to the market.”

Java is a ubiquitous platform in today’s Internet infrastructure. Yet Java language runs slower than native code, and as a result requires acceleration to overcome application latency. This is easily solved in products where additional CPU, memory, and power resources are not an issue. For resource-constrained next generation wireless internet-enabled devices to be able to realize the vision of enabled mobile commerce, overcoming the fundamental barrier of cost effectively increasing Java speed is crucial. Yet these devices can achieve significant Java acceleration without the substitution of a higher performance processor or additional memory, which greatly increases cost and reduces battery life.

Designed to efficiently and economically address the key performance shortcomings of Java mobile platforms, inSilicon’s highly flexible JVX technology consists of hardware and software semiconductor IP technology that can be integrated into existing or new mobile platforms, and can work with any microprocessor or microcontroller, Java Virtual Machine, or real-time operating system.

Easier to integrate than dedicated Java CPUs or co-processors and portable to any semiconductor foundry and design environment, JVX technology functions as a hardware accelerator attached to the native system processor, and can increase Java-based system performance up to 15X. Licensed as synthesizable Verilog source code and software, JVX technology preserves all the software capabilities of the original system CPU.

About inSilicon

inSilicon Corporation is a leading provider of communications semiconductor intellectual property used by semiconductor and systems companies to design systems-on-chip that are critical components of innovative wired and wireless products. inSilicon’s technology provides customers faster time-to-market and reduced risk and development cost. The company’s broad portfolio of analog and mixed-signal products and enabling communications technologies, including the JVX(TM) and JVXtreme(TM) Accelerators, Bluetooth, Ethernet, USB, PCI, and IEEE-1394, are used in a wide variety of markets encompassing communications, consumer, computing, and office automation.

Step by step, a new particle accelerator is taking shape on a flat, sandy, water-logged site in Newport News, Va. Office buildings, laboratories and test facilities already crowd the grounds, while construction workers busily prepare the tunnel — along which electrons will eventually race — and the three cavernous halls to which these high-energy particles will be delivered.

All this activity, at a cost of rouglhly $550 million, focuses on what one can describe as an immense electron microscope, called the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF). Designed to produce an intense beam of electrons with an energy of at least 4 billion electron-volts, this accelerator will allow nuclear and particle physicists to use electrons as sensitive probes for elucidating the complex structure of protons, neutrons and nuclei (SN: 8/9/86, p.90).

Without suitable detectors, however, a particle accelerator is about as useful as a microscope without an eyepiece. This lesson isn’t lost on Paul Stoler of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, N.Y., who has spent more than enough time around particle accelerators to know firsthand the crucial importance of a properly functioning, well-designed detector to an experimental physicist.

Hundreds of miles away from the rumble of heavy construction equipment in Newport News, Stoler and his colleagues have taken on the task of designing and building one of the detectors that will go into the smallest of the three experimental halls where high-energy electrons meet their targets. Although this project’s modest $1 million budget constitutes only a tiny fraction of CEBAF’s total cost, it represents a major, long-term commitment for the RPI team, which includes physicists, engineers and graduate and undergraduate students.
Developing the detector, required for distinguishing electrons from other types of particles that may pass through, has challenged the ingenuity of the researchers at every stage of the design phase. At first, we thought it was going to be straightforward, but the project just got more and more complex — and more interesting,” Stoler says.

The concept underlying the RPI detector appears reasonably simple. A charged particle traveling at a rate greater than the characteristic speed of light in a gas generates a shock wave of light. Thus, a sufficiently fast, charged particle racing through the gas would produce a string of photons, which can be detected by photomultiplier tubes.

At CEBAF, such signals would allow researchers to distinguish between electrons — which are deflected by a target’s protons or nuclei — and particles known as pions, which can be created in high-energy interactions between electrons and protons. Because deflected electrons would typically travel faster than any pions present, flashes of light in a detector in which the gas density has been properly adjusted would reveal the passage of electrons but not pions.

“It’s a very delicate way of doing immediate particle identification,” Stoler notes.

Known as Cerenkov detectors, such devices have been used for many years to identify high-velocity particles in accelerator experiments. “It’s a known technology, and we had previous experience with it,” Stoler says.

But because the new detector and all the paraphernalia required for its operation must fit into a severely confined space with a very odd geometry, the project proved far more difficult than anyone had anticipated.

Hall B, where the RPI detector will go, houses the so-called “large acceptance spectrometer.” Its core consists of a specially designed set of six superconducting coils that generate a magnetic field to bend the paths of any electrons scattered by a target. Widely and equally spaced, these coils allow even electrons deflected by large angles to reach a series of detectors arranged in concentric shells around the target area.

Each type of detector provides somewhat different but complementary information about the particles that come through, says Bernhard A. Mecking, Hall B program manger at CEBAF.

But the spectrometer’s open structure also leaves very little room for the groups responsible for the four types of detectors in Hall B to hide the cables and electronics necessary to operate the equipment. Moreover, because the detectors must be tucked between the coils and surround a large portion of the spectrometer, they can’t have a simple, flat geometry.

And everything has to fit together, Mecking notes. Any slight change in configuration to accommodate, for example, an extra cable requires negotiations among the participating groups.

“That’s what makes ours the most unusual gas Cerenkov detector ever built,” Stoler says.

Computer simulations at RPI showed that an electron would typically generate about 100 photons of ultraviolet light in the brief interval during which it passes through a Cerenkov detector. Of that tiny output, researchers could expect to capture from six to 10 photons. But to have a reasonable safety factor built into the system, even one photon from an electron’s track had to be sufficient to trigger a response.

“We had to design a system to somehow collect these photons as efficiently as possible, given the experimental situation,” Stoler says.

“That brought in the need for careful mirror design and high-quality photomultiplier tubes.”

To meet these constraints, optics specialist Paul F. Yergin and his co-workers spent many months using computers to design an arrangement of elliptical and flat mirrors for efficiently reflecting and focusing the available light into photomultiplier tubes.

The tubes themselves, however, presented a more serious problem. To keep the open regions of the Hall B spectrometer free of obstructions, the arrays of photomultiplier tubes for actually detecting the photons had to fit into the narrow spaces behind the coils where no electrons would penetrate anyway. But this put the tubes into much higher magnetic fields than they can cope with and meant that the tubes required shielding in some way.

“We never thought that this would be a problem until we started the project, and it gradually dawned on us that it was the biggest one we had,” Stoler says. “It looked pretty bleak for a while.”

In the end, says Gary S. Adams, “We used a fairly standard approach, but we had to do it in a very small space. Nobody had ever faced those constraints before.” That still leaves the problem of actually fabricating the complicated shielding system for each of the dozens of photomultiplier tubes required for the detector.

As the design phase winds down, a group of engineering students has started investigating techniques and materials for fabricating the high-quality curved and flat mirrors required for the detector. They face the challenging task of finding a rigid but moldable, lighweight, tough, reflective material that poses virtually no barrier to high-speed electrons on their way to the next detector in line. And the RPI group had to do it at a reasonable price.

“It’s a very good experience for the engineering students,” Stoler says. “They are now actually building prototype mirrors. They’re also learning a lot about what goes on in the real world when they start negotiating with companies and find that the companies are willing to do things you need for about four times what you can afford to pay.”

RPI’s agreement with CEBAF calls for delivery of the first Cerenkov detector to CEBAF in early 1995. That seems a long way off, but given the scope and intricacy of the project — just one small, though important piece of the entire CEBAF jigsaw puzzle — it may barely suffice.

“Ultimately, the most important function we have here [at RPI] is the involvement of students in new kinds of experiences,” Stoler says. “We’re trying to educate our students to be knowledgeable about new materials, new techniques. When they go out into the industrial world, they’ll carry these kinds of skills with them.”

Matrox Graphics Inc., the leading professional graphics company, announces the Matrox Parhelia(TM) family of graphics accelerators — the first graphics boards based on the revolutionary, new Matrox Parhelia-512 high fidelity GPU.

Delivering the highest quality, excellent performance and unique features, the Matrox Parhelia line of graphics boards is the first to offer a multitude of new features, including a full 256-bit DDR memory interface, partial compatibility with Microsoft(R) DirectX(R) 9.0 and the most advanced multi-display computing capabilities.

“We are excited to see hardware implementation of an important part of Microsoft DirectX 9.0 technology in the Matrox Parhelia graphics adaptors,” says Channing Verbeck, Director of Windows Graphics and Gaming Technologies at Microsoft Corp. “With its DirectX 9.0-compatible Quad Vertex Shader Array and Hardware Displacement Mapping support, Parhelia takes a significant step toward increasing the realism of 3-D graphics. And, with Parhelia’s support for innovative multidisplay features such as TripleHead Desktop, its users will greatly benefit from the enhanced productivity made available by running Windows XP in a multimonitor environment.”

Matrox Parhelia graphics adaptors represent the highest quality 2D and 3D multi-display computing solutions available on the market. Ideal for desktop publishing, web design, software development, digital photography, video editing and gaming, the Matrox Parhelia is targeted to the 2D workstation, professional and PC enthusiast markets.

“Matrox has a long history of leadership in professional graphics, display quality and multi-display computing,” says Jon Peddie, president, Jon Peddie Research. “With Parhelia, Matrox brings substantial ingenuity and compelling features to the 2D workstation and high-end enthusiast markets.”

Widest variety of display outputs

All Parhelia boards are full-height ATX form factor with two DVI-I connectors integrated on the bracket, and allow Matrox to offer the widest variety of display output options on the market:

- One "Y-shaped" DVI-I to dual HD-15 cable

- One DVI-I to HD-15 adaptor

- One HD-15 to S-video and composite cable

The full flexibility of display configurations are offered to end users by the standard bundling of three cables/adaptors:

- One "Y-shaped" DVI-I to dual HD-15 cable

- One DVI-I to HD-15 adaptor

- One HD-15 to S-video and composite cable

Matrox Parhelia boards employ highly developed electronics, which–coupled with the Parhelia’s dual 10-bit RAMDACs–ensure that signal quality is maintained at the highest frequency desktop settings, resulting in flicker-free, ultra-crisp displays, free of any pixel ghosting, sparkling or shadowing artifacts to deliver the highest-fidelity RGB, DVI and TV outputs.

The Matrox Parhelia boards deliver the fastest 2D performance, and are the first full-speed AGP 4X devices capable of accelerating 3D across three monitors. All boards offer an incredible range of cutting-edge 2D and 3D features, including 10-bit GigaColor Technology, four quad-textured pixels rendered per clock, 64 Super Sample Texture Filtering, 16x Fragment Antialiasing (FAA-16x), Glyph Antialiasing, a Quad DirectX 9 Vertex Shader Array, a 36-op pixel shader array, and many more.

Surround Gaming

For the ultimate gaming experience, Matrox Parhelia boards uniquely offer Surround Gaming for three- display game play, providing the most immersive 3D experience for many popular gaming titles including: Flight Simulator 2002, by Microsoft Corporation; Quake III Arena(TM), by Id Software(TM)/ Activision(R); Return to Castle Wolfenstein, by Gray matter and Id Software, Inc./Activision; Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast(TM), by Raven Software/LucasArts(R) Entertainment Company LLC; Unreal(R) Tournament 2003, by Digital Extremes and Epic Games, Inc./Atari(R); Imperium Galactica 3: Genesis, by Philos Laboratories/CDV Software Entertainment AG, and many, many more.

Included software

All Matrox Parhelia graphics boards will ship standard with full-featured drivers for Microsoft Windows XP and Windows 2000 including support for Microsoft DirectX 8.1 and OpenGL(R). Parhelia comes with Matrox’s completely new PowerDesk-HF utility suite, providing easy-to-use controls for hardware configuration and multi-display desktop management.

Parhelia is bundled with a special version of the Waytech Coloreal(R) advanced color calibration system. The Matrox version of Coloreal takes full advantage of the Parhelia’s dual, high precision 10-bit RAMDACs and allows users to precisely color match multiple monitors.

Also included is the Matrox GigaColor plug-in for Adobe(R) Photoshop(R), allowing users to view extremely high color .TIF and .PNG files in 10-bit per color channel employing one billion simultaneously displayed colors. This applet is launched through Adobe’s plug-in architecture and allows interactive viewing of images at the highest fidelity.

Matrox technology demos include the stunning Reef demo–which showcases Parhelia’s 3D technology and includes more than 100 realistic underwater denizens rendered simultaneously–and demos of Matrox’s Hardware Displacement Mapping, which provides a new method of representing and rendering complex 3D geometry using a simple and compact data representation for the most realistic 3D scenes.

Pricing and availability

At introduction, Matrox Parhelia graphics boards will be available with 128MB of DDR memory in both retail and bulk packaging. The retail packaged version of the Matrox Parhelia 128MB board will have an estimated street price of US $399 and both versions are expected to begin shipment by June 30th, 2002. Additionally, Matrox plans to bring a 64MB and a 256MB version of the Parhelia to market later this summer.

About Parhelia(TM)-512

A source of unparalleled quality, excellent performance, and the widest range of innovative features, ParheliaTM-512 is designed to bring outstanding graphics quality to professional users and PC enthusiasts alike. This AGP 4X, 80 million transistor, 0.15u, 2D, 3D and DVD/video GPU supports a unified frame buffer of up to 256MB in size and features a true 256-bit DDR memory interface. ParheliaTM-512 delivers advanced multi-display computing with support for TripleHead RGB output, DualHead digital output and TV output for the ultimate in high fidelity graphics. With an unprecedented number of groundbreaking technologies, ParheliaTM-512 takes 2D quality and 3D realism to a whole new level.

About Matrox Graphics Inc.

Matrox Graphics Inc., the leading professional graphics company, has been delivering high-quality, innovative 2D/3D and video graphics accelerators for more than a quarter century. Pioneer of the trend-setting DualHead(R) technology, Matrox is a graphics chip designer and board manufacturer whose products have been awarded over 1,000 times worldwide for their superior image quality, practical ingenuity and unwavering stability. A privately held company headquartered in Montreal, Canada, Matrox has international offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Hong Kong.
Matrox Graphics Inc. and Matrox are registered trademarks or trademarks of Matrox Graphics Inc. and/or Matrox Electronic Systems Ltd. Other company, product and service names and/or logos indicated above may be trademarks or service marks of such other companies.

Mountain View, Calif.–A pair of moves by multimedia semiconductor vendors has nudged the market closer to the goal of 3-D on desktop PC platforms as multimedia designer VSIS, newly spun-off from Mitsubishi Electronics America, unveiled its 3DPro technology for 3-D graphics on the PC, while AccelGraphics separately introduced its AccelPRO TX graphics board.

Jointly developed by Mitsubishi and Evans & Sutherland Computer, the 3DPro project brings to term a 1995 partnership inked to deliver workstation-quality graphics capability to the consumer PC market.

In addition to its sub-micron process technology, Mitsubishi contributed its 3D-RAM as a frame buffer and Cached DRAM as local texture memory, while Evans & Sutherland offered its 2-D/3-D REALimage graphics engine and Velocity software. VSIS, which was granted independence from Mitsubishi last month (EN, July 22), tied the technologies together with its marketing and systems-level experience, according to the company.

The 3DPro is claimed to assume three duties in the 3-D graphics pipeline–geometry, rendering and rasterization–to deliver up to two million polygons/second and 60 million pixels/second at 66MHz. Designed for Pentium or Pentium Pro-based PCs, the architecture is scalable, according to VSIS, and provides base level performance comparable to a UNIX workstation.

The 3DPro provides full Open GL hardware acceleration and supports 1,280×1,024 resolution with true, double-buffered RGB color and a 24-bit z-buffer with 8-bit overlay/Window ID. Running at 30 frames/second, the device is said to support high-end graphics features such as Gouraud shading, fog, transparency, anti-aliasing, perspective-correct bilinear and trilinear mip mapping, overlay planes, alpha-blending, depth cuing, lights, stenciling, scissoring and window clipping.

Featuring varied software support, the 3DPro is PCI bus-compliant and will offer future support for the Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) and Digital Equipment’s Alpha microprocessor, according to VSIS. 3DPro samples will be available this fall with volume production expected for spring 1997. Pricing has not been determined but will be comparable to existing 3-D graphics devices for the consumer PC, VSIS said.

With workstation-quality claims of its own, AccelGraphics inaugurated the latest addition to its line of 3-D accelerators, adding enhanced 2-D/3-D graphics features.

The device is available now in two version: the $2,295 AccelPRO TX 1500 board with 4MB of video RAM (VRAM) and 8MB of DRAM; and the $2,795 AccelPRO TX 2500 with an additional 4MB of VRAM.

An array of options is available for companies that choose to upgrade their PCs rather than replace them with new models.

The components most commonly upgraded are processors memory and hard drives.

Other items often upgraded are graphics accelerators, data-backup devices, and CD-ROMs.

Information about PC components can be found in many computer magazines and mail-order catalogs and on the Internet. Following are a few companies that manufacture computer components for upgrades.

Processors

Advanced Micro Devices Inc.  AMD’s Pentium-class K6 processor features the same multimedia extension technology as Intel’s Pentium processors for fast graphics handling. It is available at speeds up to 300 megahertz (MHz).

Cyrix Corp.  Cyrix has come out with a competitor to the Pentium II, which it calls M II, available at speeds up to 300MHz.

Intel Corp. Pentium II is Intel’s most advanced processor, with speeds up to 400Mhz.

Memory

Kinston Technology Co. Kinston makes memory for most major brands and configurations of PCs. Memory is available in increments of up to 64 megabytes.

Simple Technology Inc.  Simple is another longtime maker of reliable memory of all types and sizes for mainstream PCs.

Hard Drivers

Maxtor Corp. Maxtor’s Diamond-Max hard drives have capacities of up to 11.5 gigabytes (GB).

Seagate Technology Inc. (405-936-1210,www.sagate.com). Seagate sells its Medalist, Cheetah, and Barracuda hard drives with capacities of up to 18GB.

PowerQuest Corp.  Replacing a hard drive is much easier using PowerQuest’s DriveCopy and Drive Image software. DriveCopy ($29.95) copies the contents of one hard drive to another. Drive Image ($69.95) allows companies to copy the configuration and contents of one hard drive to multiple drives.

Graphics Accelerators

ATI Technologies Inc. The All-in Wonder Pro-graphics card offers several graphics features, including 3-D and 2-D graphics and video, a stereo television tuner, and video capture capabilities. Retail price $279.

Number Nine Visual Technology  Number Nine’s Revolution 3D graphics card greatly increases the processing speed and clarity of computer graphics and video. It handles 3-D and 2-D graphics and video. Retail prices start at $129, depending on the amount of memory.

Backup Devices

Iomega Corp.  Iomega offers a number of solutions for backing up data, including the internal Zip drive ($99)-which uses small cassettes that each can store up to 100MB of data-and the internal Jaz tape drive ($279.95), which has up to 2GB of capacity.

SyQuest Technology Inc.  SyQuest’s fast SparQ internal drive ($1999) for PCs stores 1GB of data. The SyJet tape drive ($249) for PCs and Macs provides fast data storage of 15GB of data.

CD-ROM/DVD

Panasonic Computer Peripheral Co. CD-ROM drives have become indispensable for landing software and using multimedia and reference materials stored on CD-ROMs. Panasonic’s LK-MC682BP internal 32-speed CD-ROM provide blazing playback and fast response times Retail price is $99.

Sony Electronics Inc.  Digital videodisc players allow users to play back full-motion video off high-capacity discs as well as conventional audio CDs and CD-ROMs. Sony’s DDU220E/H DVD drive comes bundled with an MPEG decoder card that takes much of the burden of playing video off the PC’s processor, allowing users to play videos while working on other tasks. Retail price is S349.

Creative Labs Inc. One type of DVD drive, known as DVD-RAM, enables users to record a whopping 5.2GB of data per double-sided disk. Like other varieties of DVD drives, Creative Labs’ DVD-ROM drives also enable playback of audio CDs, and pre-recorded DVD videos. Price direct from Creative Labs: $499.99.

VisionTek, a leading manufacturer of advanced PC graphics and memory solutions, today announced its entry into the retail market at RetailVision, April 2-5, Beverly Hills, Calif. In addition to offering its products through leading original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), resellers and distributors, VisionTek has introduced a consumer product line, which is now available at national retail outlets, including Babbages, Electronics Boutique, Fry’s and Hastings.

According to Ric Lewis, VisionTek’s executive vice president of business development, the company’s status as a leading electronics manufacturing services (EMS) company, has successfully positioned VisionTek to fill unmet retail demand. “Our retail presence is a natural extension of our proven leadership in OEM and reseller markets for graphics, memory and peripheral products,” said Lewis. “We have the product mix, capacity and support necessary to satisfy consumer demand for high-quality PC components.”

“VisionTek seemingly came out of nowhere to dominate the retail market, but truth be told, the company has been a leading player all along,” said Kyle Bennett, founder of HardOCP.com. “VisionTek has been quietly putting out impressive graphics and memory products for big name companies. Consumers will quickly realize what those of us closest to the industry have known for a long time - there’s a world of difference between VisionTek’s cards and the others.”

One of the world’s largest providers of 3D graphics cards, and the only U.S.-based company manufacturing retail 3D graphics accelerators with NVIDIA chipsets, VisionTek is entering the retail market with a phased implementation strategy. During the first phase, VisionTek is introducing a line of high-quality graphics accelerators.

“VisionTek’s award-winning graphics cards combine performance, speed and visual quality to power the most intense visual ride gamers dare to take on,” said Lewis. “End-users have already been purchasing VisionTek graphics cards through our other channels. Now gamers at all experience levels can purchase OEM-quality products directly through retail outlets and be assured an unprecedented gaming experience at every price point.”

The company’s GeForce2 MX and Vanta 16 AGP graphics accelerators are available now. VisionTek’s GeForce3 will be in stores in May 2001. Future VisionTek consumer product introductions are expected to include a complete line of NVIDIA processor-based video cards, memory upgrades, sound cards, modems and other PC components.

“The VisionTek product line is a tremendous addition for our stores,” said Jerry Madaio, vice president of sales at Electronics Boutique. “There is a considerable hole in the market for graphics accelerators, and we’re glad VisionTek is the one to fill it. We’re confident VisionTek offers the quality, capacity and breadth of product line we need to give gamers of all experience levels exactly what they’re looking for in a graphics card.”

Traditionally first to market with latest NVIDIA-based products, VisionTek manufactures its line of retail graphics accelerators in a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility with the industry’s fastest production lines. The company’s longstanding relationship with NVIDIA, combined with its stringent, ISO-registered quality processes and worldwide network of offices and sales partners, ensures VisionTek products will be available to retailers immediately and meet the highest standards for quality and compatibility. VisionTek products are also backed a three-year warranty and the support of the company’s expert technical support professionals.

In addition to its retail product line, VisionTek offers its memory, graphics and peripheral products through authorized resellers.
About VisionTek

Based in Gurnee, Illinois, VisionTek, is a leading manufacturer, developer, and supplier of graphics, value-added memory, and peripheral product solutions for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as Compaq, Gateway, IBM, and Micron, as well as electronics manufacturers, IS professionals and their channel partners. VisionTek is a global supplier, shipping to Europe and Asia as well as the U.S. The company delivers guaranteed-compatible desktop, notebook, server, and printer products that extend the useful life of technology investments. The company is ISO 9001 certified, ensuring the highest standards for quality in design, manufacturing, testing, and delivery. VisionTek products are available through leading distributors, resellers and retail outlets. In addition to the full range of graphics, memory, and peripheral products sold through the reseller channel, VisionTek offers value-added contract manufacturing services. VisionTek’s consumer product line is available at national retail stores, including Babbages, Electronics Boutique, Fry’s and Hastings.