WARNING: These pages are out of date!

We are working on new ones, which will be posted in the next few weeks. We are radically changing the layout, to provide concise information and rely heavily on pointers to email, web and phone contacts at the companies.

Please bear with us.

Section V: Other boards

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B01) AccelGraphics AG300 and AG500

The AG300 and AG500 are very similar. I'll describe the AG300 first and then outline the differences. Both support a dual screen configuration with two of the same card.

ACCELGRAPHICS AG300

Accelgraphics is a spinoff of Kubota Graphics, which was Kubota Pacific before that. They made the Denali graphics subsystem for DEC's Alpha-based workstation (they were a partner with DEC).

Features

Performance

Benefits

Hardware Features

Graphics application programming interfaces

Supported Operating System Environments

Supported Applications

Platforms supported: Intel, Alpha, MIPS, & PowerPC platforms

System requirements

ACCELGRAPHICS AG500

Similar to the AG300. However, it has 12.5M Memory on board and a list price 3,495.

The extra ram adds 8 GL Stencil planes and a 24bit Z-buffer.

The AG500 also has 4 hardware "lookup tables", including:

Contact Information:

Corporate Headquarters:
AccelGraphics, Inc.
1942 Zanker Road
San Jose, CA 95112
408-441-1556
408-441-1599 fax

Western Region:
Kim Rawlings
714-589-2453
714-589-2483 fax
Kim_Rawlings@ag3d.com

Central Region:
Dan Vitale
513-858-1400
513-858-2905 fax
Dan_Vitale@ag3d.com

Southern Region:
John Caravello
407-834-7275
407-834-9052 fax
John_Caravello@ag3d.com

Europe:
David Holman
011-44-1635-40122
011-44-1635-551-147 fax
davidh@perform.hiway.co.uk

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B02) ISC PowerGL

The PowerGL card is the Accelgraphics AG300 being sold OEM by ISC, which is described above. Since the AG300 and the PowerGL are the exact same card, I won't repeat the specs here. Talk to both companies, see which one better suits your needs.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

International Software Corporation (ISC)
Suite 275
433 Park Point Drive
Golden, CO 80401

Orders: 1-800-488-4721
Fax: 303-526-0581
E-mail: 76516.2544@compuserve.com

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B03) Evans & Sutherland Freedom

PRESS RELEASE:

EVANS & SUTHERLAND BRINGS 3D GRAPHICS EXPERTISE TO THE PERSONAL COMPUTER

SALT LAKE CITY, March 2, 1995 Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation (NASDAQ: ESCC) today announced Freedom Graphics(tm) for the Personal Computer. Freedom Graphics is the first product to bring the 3D graphics technology of E&S to the personal computing environment.

Freedom Graphics is an implementation of the specialized features that 3D graphics applications require for smooth, fast execution. Users can produce impressive realistic images with the product's rich feature set and high-performance graphics for Windows/NT(r) applications.

The graphics card supports the OpenGL(r) software application programming interface and is designed to accelerate OpenGL in the PC environment. Freedom Graphics is a PCI bus-based card that incorporates the same technology as the Freedom Series graphics accelerators which supply high-end graphics for the world's largest workstation vendors. Ideal markets to take advantage of the extensive feature set of Freedom Graphics are CAD, Industrial Design, Simulation, Visualization, Animation, Entertainment and Game Development. Supported PC processors include MIPS(tm), Pentium(r) and Power PC(tm).

"The interest being generated by Freedom Graphics is extraordinary," said Jim Oyler, President and CEO of Evans & Sutherland. "Freedom Graphics allows a low-cost PC-based system to achieve the performance of a much more expensive workstation. This is going to be an explosive market in the very near future."

Evans & Sutherland is the only 3D graphics vendor with a product line that spans the entire computing industry from the personal computer up to multi-million dollar flight simulators and location-based entertainment systems.

"We are pleased that Evans & Sutherland has applied their knowledge and experience in high-performance real-time 3D graphics to the PC marketplace," said Tom Coull, President of Sense8 Corporation. "WorldToolKit and Freedom Graphics will offer a definitive hardware-accelerated solution for texture-mapped virtual reality applications."

Freedom Graphics' feature set includes real-time 3D graphics rendering and animation, hardware based 24-bit texture acceleration, scalable texture memory up to 16 MBytes, bi-linear and tri-linear MIP-mapping, specular highlights, fast set-up calculations, full scene antialiasing, transparency and depth cueing. The additional experience of E&S with OpenGL will also result in significant performance advantages for applications using the OpenGL library from E&S.

According to Ian Reid, Vice-President of Marketing at Advanced Visual Systems, "Freedom Graphics offers a new level of capability for the PC user and AVS/Express allows any PC developer to take immediate advantage of features such as hardware texture-mapping and transparency. It's the ideal combination."

Freedom Graphics performance under Windows/NT and OpenGL is 300,000 triangles/second. The card will list price at US$2450 with second quarter availability through OEMs and VARs. Freedom Graphics was first shown at Fall Comdex '94 in Las Vegas.

The significance of Freedom Graphics lies in its delivery of a graphics feature set at unsurpassed performance levels. Advanced features such as texture mapping are still unavailable from any other vendor for under US$10,000. Freedom Graphics also provides performance not yet seen in the 3D PC graphics market. Nearest competitors for performance provide minimal feature sets and are only available at much higher prices.

Evans & Sutherland is a leader in advanced 3D graphics and visualization systems for science, industry, education, and entertainment. The Graphics Systems Division provides graphics hardware and software solutions that are sold and supported by DEC, HP, IBM, and Sun Microsystems. Evans & Sutherland was founded in 1968 and is based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Freedom Graphics, and Freedom Series are trademarks of Evans & Sutherland. OpenGL is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc. All other trade names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Freedom Graphics(tm) for the Personal Computer

High-Speed Realism from Evans & Sutherland

Evans & Sutherland pioneered the computer graphics industry over 25 years ago. Since then our graphics know-how has been engineered into everything from multi-million dollar flight simulators to high-end graphics accelerators for workstations. Now, the same technology used in those high-end workstations is available for the personal computer with Freedom Graphics. Freedom Graphics is a 3D graphics card that delivers high-performance, workstation-class 3D graphics for your Windows NT applications. Freedom Graphics is a masterful implementation of the specialized features that 3D graphics applications require for smooth, fast execution. Users will be impressed by the realistic images they can produce with the well-crafted feature set.

Freedom Graphic Advantages

Software Programming Environment

Freedom Graphics supports the OpenGL(tm) software application programming interface and was designed to accelerate OpenGL in the personal computing environment."

FROM THE SPEC SHEET:

Technical Specifications

Software Support - 2D/3D Drivers

Monitor

Video timing supports any monitor capable of displaying the listed resolutions in non-interlaced mode. 15 pin D-shell VGA connector

Availability

The Freedom Graphics product will be initially sold through OEM's and Value-Added Resellers, who will be announced along with the product. The product will be available on the product announcement date.

Freedom Graphics is a trademark of Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation. OpenGL is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics Inc. All other products are trademarks of their respective companies.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Jennifer Hughes
Evans & Sutherland
jhughes@dsd.es.com
Phone: 1-800-367-7460
Facsimile: (801) 582-0524

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B04) Matrox Impression Plus

FROM THE SPEC SHEET:

Windows Features:

Multimedia Features:

MGA Video XL Upgrade Module: (Q1 95)

Real-Time 2D and 3D Features:

Models Available: 

MGA-IMP+/P:    PCI Bus
          2 Mb WRAM upgradable to 4 Mb
          1600 x 1200 in 256 colors
          800 x 600  in 16.7m colors
          VM Channel upgradable

MGA-IMP+/V:    VL Bus
          2 Mb WRAM upgradable to 4 Mb
          1600 x 1200 in 256 colors
          800 x 600  in 16.7m colors
          VM Channel upgradable

MGA-IMP+/A:    AT Bus
          2 Mb WRAM upgradable to 4 Mb
          1600 x 1200 in 256 colors
          800 x 600  in 16.7m colors
          VM Channel upgradable

MGA-IMP+/P/220:     PCI Bus
          2 Mb WRAM upgradable to 4 Mb
          220 MHz DAC for 85Hz @1600x1200
          Other specifications same as MGA-IMP+/P

MGA-IMP+/V/220:     VL Bus
          2 Mb WRAM upgradable to 4 Mb
          220 MHz DAC for 85Hz @1600x1200
          Other specifications same as MGA-IMP+/V

MGA-IMP+/A/220:     AT Bus
          2 Mb WRAM upgradable to 4 Mb
          220 MHz DAC for 85Hz @1600x1200
          Other specifications same as MGA-IMP+/A

MGA-MOD/2Mb/1  2Mb upgrade for MGA Impression Plus
          1600x1200 in 256 and 65K colors
          1280x1024 in 16.7m colors

MGA-MOD/VMC    VideoLogic PowerPlay64 video accelerator chip
          1280 x 1024 at 30 frames per second
          
MGA-MOD/VMC/2MB     2 Mb upgrade for MGA Impression Plus and VideoLogic
PowerPlay64 video accelerator chip for 1280 x 1024 at 30 frames per second.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Telephone 1-800-361-1408

Matrox Graphics Inc.
1055 St Regis Blvd
Dorval, Quebec
Canada H9P 2T4

Telephone: 514.685.2630
Facsimile: 514.685.2853

COMMENT: From Chris Hinch (chris@dcc.govt.nz):

I heard comments on comp.sys.opengl that, at the moment, the Impression Plus doesn't have "true" OpenGL support under Windows NT. I don't know if this is correct or not.
From Blair MacIntyre:
This is partially true. Someone from Microsoft posted saying that NT 3.51 will include the appropriate driver for OpenGL for this card.
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B05) Oki TrianGL

More information on Oki and their products can be found on their web page (www.oki.com) or by sending email to triangl@oki.com

The information here was extracted from the page

http://www.oki.com/products/TrianGL.html

Oki's TrianGL is aimed at 3D applications using the OpenGL graphics API.

At the heart of the TrianGL is a custom, high-performance rendering ASIC--a drawing engine which provides both 2D and 3D acceleration. The chip interfaces directly to multiple banks of video RAM via a 80-bit data bus, boosting overall drawing performance.

The four banks of VRAM, 10 MBytes in all, each operate independently to maximize the performance efficiency of the rendering ASIC. For many drawing primitives, all the banks can operate in parallel. However, for certain primitives, such as vector drawing or triangle drawing, address and color values are sent from the ASIC to the appropriate memory banks in a pipelined, serial fashion. TrianGL's use of triangle drawing primitives gives the board a major performance advantage over other products which use simpler span primitives.

Two separate RGB buffers allow true hardware double buffering for smooth, artifact-free animation. An independent 24-bit Z buffer is dedicated for hidden surface removal during 3D object rendering. And finally, eight utility planes support board-specific video options such as overlays, window types and RGB double buffering. In order to support VGA compatibility, a VESA standard VGA passthrough interface is included on the board.

Accelerated Drawing Operations

TrianGL Features

Specifications

Software Support

Oki supports TrianGL on PC and RISC PC platforms with host software drivers for Windows NT 3.5. OpenGL and DDI support are available for Intel and Mips platforms. Other popular APIs, including AutoCAD, will be supported in future software releases.

Look for future TrianGL versions with higher resolution, and a PCI bus interface.

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B06) Intergraph GLZ Series

The GLZ series accelerates OpenGL[tm] graphics on Intergraph Computer Systems' TDZ workstations. GLZs let you manipulate Gouraud-shaded 3D models by adding realistic effects such as lighting, translucency, and textured surfaces; and performing spectacular flythroughs, walkthroughs, and animations -- all in real time, at high resolutions, and in true color.

By performing shading and geometry operations in dedicated hardware, GLZs ease the load on the TDZ's Pentium[tm] processor(s) and cut down traffic on the PCI bus, which results in dramatic improvements in graphics performance.

The GLZ family supports Intergraph's 17- and 21-inch multi-sync monitors and 21- and 27-inch InterVue monitors at resolutions up to 1,600 x 1,280 pixels. The GLZs support dual screens and are ready for stereoscopic display on any stereo-ready monitor. (LCD shutter glasses and emitter modules are required and are available from Intergraph Computer Systems.)

The GLZ family offers a selection of 34, 24, or 12 megabytes of VRAM. 24 megabytes of VRAM supports resolutions up to 1,600 x 1,280 with 16.8 million colors (true color). 12 megabytes of VRAM suppots true color at a maximum resolution of 1,152 x 854. 34 megabytes of VRAM supports a 32-bit Z buffer, double-buffered true color, and display capabilities such as translucency and overlay at resolutions up to 1,600 x 1,280.

Intergraph Computer Systems offers six different GLZ configurations.

GLZ6

The top of our 3D graphics accelerator line -- offers shading acceleration, geometry acceleration, and texture-processing for fast, real-time rendering of complex and detailed designs.

Product highlights

GLZ5

Our GLZ5 offers the same high-performance shading and geometry acceleration as does GLZ6. With 12 MB of VRAM, GLZ5 supports resolutions up to 1,152 x 864. Two megatexels (8 megabytes of texture memory) provide more than enough texture storage for adding patterns to furniture, waves to water, or trees to parks and forests.

GLZ5's low price may even tempt you to invest in dual screens and LCD shutter glasses for a stereoscopic adventure into virtual reality!

Product highlights (same as the GLZ6, except where noted)

GLZ4 and GLZ3

GLZ4 and GLZ3 support both shading and geometry acceleration. If you need fast, accurate rendering of complex solid models but don't normally require realtime texture processing for photorealism, GLZ4 (24 MB of VRAM) or GLZ3 (12 MB of VRAM) will give you performance that more than meets your expectations. Don't worry if you occasionally need to render a textured image. Thanks to OpenGL, texture processing is fully supported in software.

Product highlights

GLZ2 and GLZ1

Product highlights

GLZ1T

This card has the same features as the GLZ1 card, accept that it adds 8 MB of texture memory and supports hardware processing like the GLZ5 and GLZ6.

GLZ configurations at a glance

GLZ     Hardware    Hardware    Hardware     Texture    Frame   Max
model   rendering   geometry    texture      DRAM       buffer  resolution
        accel       accel       processing              VRAM    (in pixels)
                                                
GLZ6    Yes         Yes         Yes          32 MB      34 MB   1,600 x 1,280
                                         (8 megatexels)
GLZ5    Yes         Yes         Yes           8 MB      12 MB   1,152 x 864
                                         (2 megatexels)
GLZ4    Yes         Yes         No              No      24 MB   1,600 x 1,280
GLZ3    Yes         Yes         No              No      12 MB   1,152 x 864
GLZ2    Yes         No          No              No      24 MB   1,600 x 1,280
GLZ1T   Yes         No          Yes           8 MB      12 MB   1,152 x 864
                                         (2 megatexels)
GLZ1    Yes         No          No              No      12 MB   1,152 x 864

Performance specifications for GLZ2, GLZ4, and GLZ6

The following table summarizes hardware performance for GLZs supporting resolutions up to 1,600 x 1,280 (GLZ2, GLZ4, and GLZ6) on Intergraph Computer Systems' 21- and 27-inch InterVue monitors and 17- and 21-inch multi-sync monitors. 
3D graphics performance*

    3D requests (with Z buffering)            Performance                    

    Triangle, 50-pixel, Gouraud shaded         450,000 triangles/second
    Triangle, 25-pixel, Gouraud shaded         515,000 triangles/second
    Vector, 10-pixel, solid color            1,150,000   vectors/second
    Vector, 10-pixel, Gouraud shaded         1,000,000   vectors/second
    Vector, 10-pixel, antialiased              550,000   vectors/second

Texturing performance (GLZ6)*

 Textured areas, 512 x 512  (trilinear      15 megatexels/second
	interpolated, mip-mapped)

2D graphics performance*

    2D requests                             Performance
    
    Vector, 10-pixel, solid color           1,450,000 vectors/second    
    Vector, 10-pixel, antialiased             550,000 vectors/second    
    Blit: screen to screen, 64 Bit              26 megapixels/second
  	(R,G,B,A,Z)
    Fills                                      400 megapixels/second    
    Text, 9 x 13                           240,000 characters/second

 *These performance numbers are the maximum hardware rate. Actual
  system performance depends on host processor speed and application.

Performance specifications for GLZ1, GLZ1T, GLZ3, and GLZ5

The following table summarizes hardware performance for GLZs supporting resolutions up to 1,152 x 864 on Intergraph Computer Systems' 17- and 21-inch multi-sync monitors. 
3D graphics performance*

    3D requests (with Z buffering)                 Performance

    Triangle, 50-pixel, Gouraud shaded      230,000 triangles/second
    Triangle, 25-pixel, Gouraud shaded      425,000 triangles/second
    Vector, 10-pixel, solid color             800,000 vectors/second
    Vector, 10-pixel, Gouraud shaded          800,000 vectors/second
    Vector, 10-pixel, antialiased             285,000 vectors/second

Texturing performance (GLZ1T, GLZ5)*

Textured areas, 512 x 512 (trilinear        15 megatexels/second
	interpolated,  mip-mapped)

2D graphics performance*

    2D requests                             Performance
    
    Vector, 10-pixel, solid color           1,150,000 vectors/second    
    Vector, 10-pixel, antialiased             285,000 vectors/second
    Blit: screen to screen, 64 Bit              13 megapixels/second
	(R,G,B,A,Z)    
    Fills                                      200 megapixels/second    
    Text, 9 x 13                           190,000 characters/second

 * These performance numbers are the maximum hardware rate. Actual
   system performance depends on host processor speed and application.

Display support

GLZ2, GLZ4, and GLZ6 support Intergraph Computer Systems' 21- and 27-inch InterVue monitors and our 17- and 21-inch multi-sync monitors at resolutions up to 1,600 x 1,280 pixels. The following table indicates the currently supported screen resolutions in full 24-bit, true-color, double-buffered mode. 
    Resolutions          Colors            Maximum    
     supported          supported          refresh    
			 16.8 M             rates     
    
    1,600 x 1,280           X               76 Hz
    1,600 x  1,200          X               81 Hz     
    1,280 x 1,024           X               94 Hz    
    1,280 x 960             X               100 Hz    
    1,152 x 864             X               85 Hz    
    1,024 x 768             X               122 Hz    
    800 x 600               X               153 Hz    
    640 x 480               X               186 Hz

GLZ1, GLZ1T, GLZ3, and GLZ5 support Intergraph Computer Systems' 17- and 21-inch multi-sync monitors at resolutions up to 1,152 x 864. The following table indicates the currently supported screen resolutions in full 24-bit, true-color, double-buffered mode. 

    Resolutions             Colors          Maximum     
    supported               supported       refresh     
			    6.8 M           rates     
    
    1,152 x 864              X              72 Hz     
    1,024 x 768              X              85 Hz     
     800 x 600               X              85 Hz     
     640 x 480               X              85 Hz

For more information or the number of a sales representative or Intergraph Computer Center near you, call:

U.S. and Canada : 800-763-0242
Asia-Pacific : 852-2893-3621
Europe : 31-2503-66576
Middle East : 971-4-367555
Other areas : 1-205-730-5441
Or reach us on the Internet at http://www.intergraph.com.

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B07) Division's VPX Image Generator and ProVision Systems

Division's VPX image generator board in an extended EISA board which offers up to 300,000 fully texture-mapped, z-buffered polygons per second, with screen-fill performance of more than 997 megapixels per second. The VPX board can render a single image (or a stereo image on the VPX-Stereo version only) in NTSC composite or Y/C video, or field-sequential RGB formats.

The VPX is available as an OEM PC card, for integration into the OEM's own PC platforms, or as a fully-configured development platform.

The ProVision Merlin development platform for the VPX card includes a high-performance Pentium(R) processor, one, two, or three VPX graphics cards, standard MS-DOS PC I/O, and software development tools. The ProVision Merlin is a complete solution for manufacturers who want to immediately start development.

The VPX board is also available in Division's ProVision 10 immersive virtual reality accelerator for the HP 700 range of UNIX workstations, or in Division's ProVision 100 fully-integrated virtual reality workstation, which includes an HMD, tracker, 3D audio, and all software required to create complex virtual environments without programming.

A key feature of the VPX board is the outstanding pixel fill-rate needed to fill the large numbers of textured polygons required for visually-realistic, real-time applications. The VPX board has been developed from the outset for high-end simulation and entertainment applications, and is capable of a sustained 20-30Hz frame-rate with very rich visual content and 3D depth. The VPX is based on the University of North Carolina's patented Pixel-Planes (tm) massively parallel image generator technology.

PRICING

ProVision Merlin - PC/DOS based graphics System, Pentium Option The ProVision Merlin is an advanced virtual reality, simulation, or entertainment computer system with the VPX Pixel-Planes(tm) graphics. This 66 MHz Intel(R) Pentium(R) PC includes a compact, rugged, industrial-class chassis, 300 watt power supply, 4 available EISA slots, a keyboard, mouse, 16Mbytes RAM, 500Mbyte Disk, 14" color monitor, MS DOS, MS Windows, and a VPX-Mono image generator board. The ProVision Merlin supports mono head mounted displays and NTSC video monitors. The graphics system includes Division's dPL graphics runtime library for the VPX. One VPX-Mono image generator is included in this system.

The ProVision Merlin is also available in configurations with two or three VPX image generator boards, thus achieving up to six simultaneous out-the-window displays and 900,000 fully photo-textured, z-buffered polygons per second.

For more information, contact:

Pierre duPont dupontp@division.co.uk
Marketing Director, Division Limited
19 Apex Court, Woodlands, Bristol UK BS12 4JT
phone: +44 1454 615554
fax: +44 1454 615532

They also have a web page at http://www.division.com.

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B08) Reality Simulation Systems Little Squirt

They had an experimental WWW server running, but it has been down.
The URL is http://www.simsys.com/
You can get more info about the company by
1) finger @simsys.com
2) mail info@simsys.com

For more information, contact:

Reality Simulation Systems, Inc.
1223 Peoples Ave.
Troy, NY 12180
Phone: 518.276.3073
Fax: 518.276.6380

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B09) Western Digital Tasmania 3D

The information I currently have is from the press release on Western Digital's home page:
http://www.wdc.com/

The actual press release is at:

http://www.wdc.com/new/releases/950918-2.html

The board is aimed at 3D gaming and is available for either PCI- or VL-based systems.

It has an estimated selling price of $250.

It renders high-resolution three dimensional games with detailed textures at realistic frame rates on mainstream PCs. Its 640 by 480 resolution redefines state-of-the-art for 3D games, quadrupling the current 320 by 200 resolution of most software-based 3D games.

The board comes with two popular high-resolution action games, immediately sending users into the next dimension of computing.

The design and implementation of Tasmania 3D allows it to co-exist with any 2D graphics accelerator. Users don't have to invest in any additional hardware to play their 3D games. Tasmania 3D gives users the excitement of 3D without impacting the performance of their existing 2D graphics card.

Tasmania 3D incorporates the Yamaha YGV612 Rendering Polygon Accelerator. It provides hardware texture mapping for the highest quality of detail, without sacrificing performance. It also features gouraud shading for smooth, realistic contours and Z-buffering for hidden surface removal, giving gamers the ultimate playing experience.

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B10) Dynamic Pictures V192

The information I currently have is from Leo Merta at Dynamic Pictures, Inc. For more information, contact Dinesh Sharma at:

Dinesh Sharma (sharma@dypic.com)
Dynamic Pictures, Inc.
5225 Betsy Ross Drive
Santa Clara, CA 95054-1102
Phone: 408 327-9000

The V192 3D Graphics Accelerator card is the first product in a new generation of workstation-performance Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) graphics acceleration cards for the PC Windows 95/Windows NT desktop market.

Dynamic Pictures was recently responsible for developing the ZLXp-L1 and ZLXp-L2 graphics accelerators for the Alpha AXP workstations from Digital Equipment Corporation. The V192 accelerator card is an almost identical product to the ZLXp-L1.

Features

Performance

Software Compatibility

System Hardware Requirements

Availability

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B11) Matrox Millenium

This information was obtained from Matrox's WWW server at
http://www.matrox.com/

The Matrox Millenium is consistently reviewed as one of the best 2D graphics cards currently available, with features including

The 3D features include

Specifications Summary and Ordering Information

Windows Resolutions and Colors With 3D Gouraud Shading
ResolutionsColors ResolutionsColors
1600 x 1200256, 65K*,16.7M**1600 x 1200256**
1280 x 1024256, 65K* 16.7M*1280 x 1024 256*, 65K**
1152 x 882256, 65K, 16.7M*1152 x 882256,* 65K**
1024 x 768 256, 65K, 16.7M*1024 x 768256*, 65K**,16.7M**
800 x 600 256, 65K, 16.7M800 x 600256, 65K*, 16.7M**
640 x 480 256, 65K, 16.7M640 x 480256, 65K*, 16.7M**
*Requires 4 MB of Window RAM.**Requires 8 MB of Window RAM
All 3D modes are double buffered with 16-bit Z-buffer


Refresh Rates

Resolution

V. Frequency

H. Frequency

1600 x 120060 - 85 Hz76 - 96 KHz
1280 x 102460 - 110 Hz63 - 107 KHz
1152 x 88260 - 120 Hz54 - 110 KHz
1024 x 76860 - 120 Hz48 - 104 KHz
800 x 60060 - 200 Hz37 - 100 KHz
640 x 48060 - 200 Hz 32 - 100 KHz

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B12) APD Free Dimension

This information was received from Victor Silveira (VSilveira@aol.com).

The APD Free Dimension is a PCI Bus 3D Graphics Board, ideally suited for Virtual Reality, Simulation, and Entertainment. The "Free Dimension" Board is designed and manufactured by APD, and it is marketed in Europe by APD, and marketed in the US by SILVEIRA Corporation.

The Free Dimension Board ("FDB") is designed to provide on a PC or Macintosh the same performance as those of a higher end more expensive workstation (such as Silicon Graphics, or SUN, etc.), but for a fraction of the price. The FDB provides true texture mapping and simultaneous Gouraud Shading, so that the user may experience WorkStation Class 3D on a PC/Mac environment.

Real Time Graphics Applications are possible for Virtual Reality (VR) and Simulation applications. FDB incorporates GUL (Graphics Ultra Light),a Library Optimized for Real Time Graphics, that takes advantage of the underlying hardware (GUL works with Studio and SoftImage).

Hardware Features

Technical characteristics

The APD 3D PCI accelerator Board manufactured by APB scheduled for release during February 1996 in the $4,500 range.

Contact Information:
You may contact Sales, Marketing and Technical support at the following addresses:

APD
Attention Luis Pedro Marzan, Vice President
Madrid, Spain
Telephone: (34) (1) 798 5626
Fax: (34) (1) 797 7897
EMail: freedimension@gapd.es.

SILVEIRA Corporation
Attention: Mr. Kevin Toler, Manager
Washington DC, USA
Telephone: (202) 686 2230
Fax: (202) 686 2231
EMail: 102511,652@compuserve.com.

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B13) Arcobel Imagine

The following information was provided by Peter Van Ackeren, Technical Support Engineer at Arcobel (ossfs1!pva@relay.NL.net).

Features

Major Application Areas

Board Architecture

Supported Operating Systems & Graphics Standards

Imagine SDE - The Software Development Environment

For more information please: Call: (+31) 73 6444.144
Fax: (+31) 73 6444.150
E-mail: sales-ag@arcobel.nl

or write to:

        Arcobel Graphics B.V.
        P.O. Box 3523 DM `s Hertogenbosch
        The Netherlands

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B14) Synthetic Images Reality Blaster

This information was provided by Lee Slater, lslater@synthetic.com.

Reality Blazer, Model RB-1000PC

The Reality Blazer was created and built for one purpose - to process and render virtual worlds. Unlike graphics accelerators, the Reality Blazer is capable of holding an entire virtual world, and then carrying out complex object oriented simulation completely independent of the host processor. This leaves the host PC free to perform complex applications and interface tasks.

FEATURES

SPECIFICATIONS

INCLUDED SOFTWARE

OPTIONS

For more information contact:
Lee Slater, Director of Marketting
Synthetic Images
Voice: 408-267-8451
Fax: 408-267-1812
e-mail: lslater@synthetic.com

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B15) S3 ViRGE and ViRGE/VX

The information in this section was taken from the S3 homepage at:
http://www.s3.com/

The ViRGE 64-bit DRAM-based accelerator combines a 135MHz RAMDAC and clock synthesizer with the multimedia capabilities of S3's Trio64V+ including video acceleration, video playback using both software and hardware sources, live video support and the ability to connect with popular NTSC and PAL decoders. Additionally, ViRGE is SVGA-compatible, so as to support legacy DOS applications and games, and provides high-performance 2D GUI acceleration support for resolutions up to 1280 x 1024 x 256 colors at 75Hz. S3's ViRGE accelerator also provides support for all major 3D APIs, including OpenGL, Microsoft's Direct3D and RealityLab, as well as Argonaut BRender and Criterion Renderware.

The ViRGE/VX product offers all of the same features as the DRAM-based ViRGE, but substitutes support for VRAM and WindowsRAM (WRAM), and increases the integrated RAMDAC performance level to 220 MHz. Resolutions up to 1600x1200x16 million colors @ 75Hz are supported and higher memory bandwidth is enabled by the block write feature.

64-bit S3d Engine

The S3d Engine provides 2D acceleration for excellent Windows applications performance and a full-featured high-performance 3D rendering engine for games and other interactive 3D applications.

The S3d Engine incorporates the key Windows accelerator functions of BitBLT, line draw and polygon fill. 3D features include flat shading, Gouraud shading and texture mapping support. Advanced texture mapping features include perspective correction, bi-linear and tri-linear filtering, MIP- Mapping, and Z-buffering. The S3d Engine also includes direct support for utilizing video as a texture map. These features provide the most realistic user experience for interactive 3D applications.

Other advanced features of the S3d Engine include S3 proprietary compressed texture formats for improved performance and reduced memory requirements, as well as support for S3's MUX buffering (pat. pend.) feature, which allows for Z-buffering support with no additional memory requirement.

Streams Processor

The S3 Streams Processor provides the stretching and YUV color space conversion features required for full screen video playback with both software CODECs and hardware MPEG-1 sources.

The Streams Processor allows simultaneous display of graphics and video of different color depths. For example, it is possible to display 24 bpp- equivalent video on top of an 8- bit graphics background. This saves memory bandwidth and storage capacity while permitting higher frame rates.

S3 Scenic Highway

The S3 Scenic Highway allows lowest cost direct connection to S3's Scenic/MX2 MPEG-1 audio and video decoder as well as video digitizers such as the Philips SAA7110/SAA7111.

Features

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Complete Change History

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