3Dlabs Now Shipping Accelerated OpenGL and Heidi for Windows 95.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 3, 1997--

OpenGL and Heidi on Windows 95 to be supported across

3Dlabs' full range of silicon, including GLINT, PERMEDIA and

PERMEDIA NT by a single driver binary;

Expands range of platforms for optimal

hardware acceleration of 3D software applications

3Dlabs(R) Inc. today announced that it has released OpenGL(R) and Heidi(TM) driver support for Windows(R) 95 for products based on the GLINT(R) 500TX, PERMEDIA(TM) NT, and PERMEDIA(TM) graphics processors. This support enables optimal 3D hardware acceleration of a wide range of 3D software applications, including games, CAD applications and multimedia authoring programs available on Windows 95.

With this driver release, 3Dlabs becomes the first graphics semiconductor supplier to provide hardware acceleration support for both OpenGL and Heidi on Windows 95, and customers of 3Dlabs-based products will be able to freely "mix-and-match" Direct3D(TM), OpenGL and Heidi accelerated software applications on the same Windows 95 desktop. 3Dlabs is currently the only merchant chip vendor providing an OpenGL Installable Client Driver (ICD).

3Dlabs has now provided a production-ready OpenGL Windows 95 reference driver for its complete range of silicon to its board and system customers. 3Dlabs' OpenGL ICD is binary-compatible with GLINT, PERMEDIA and PERMEDIA NT, enabling the use of one driver across a broad range of price/performance add-in board and system configurations. The ICD enables 3Dlabs to offload the OpenGL geometry setup and rasterization layers onto dedicated silicon, maximizing the performance available to OpenGL users.

3Dlabs has also provided its customers with a production-ready Windows 95 Heidi driver update. Heidi is an immediate-mode 3D graphics API developed by Autodesk and supported in 3D Studio MAX(TM), from the Kinetix(TM) multimedia business unit of Autodesk. This Heidi driver works directly with 3Dlabs' silicon, enabling maximum performance for 3D Studio MAX users, and is also compatible with all of 3Dlabs' silicon - including GLINT 500TX, PERMEDIA, and PERMEDIA NT. 3Dlabs' Heidi driver is the only silicon-specific driver included "in-the-box" with 3D Studio MAX.

Quotes

"Permedia is the only low-cost chip I have found that provides fully integrated VGA, video and 2D acceleration together with a full and robust OpenGL implementation," said John Carmack, technical director at id Software. "3Dlabs' release of their OpenGL drivers on Windows 95 is a milestone in making OpenGL a widely pervasive API for applications ranging from CAD to games."

"3Dlabs has been a valued partner for Silicon Graphics in making OpenGL pervasive, first on the Windows NT platform and now on Windows 95," said John Schmipf, OpenGL program manager at SGI. "The introduction of hardware accelerated OpenGL on Windows 95 will enable a vast new market of 3D content authors and consumers."

"As the reach of 3D Studio MAX expands to even more users, particularly in the education market, Windows 95 is becoming an even more important market," said Phil Miller, 3D Studio MAX product manager at Kinetix. "We're very pleased that 3Dlabs is now supporting those users with a wide range of price performance options for 3D hardware acceleration."

"The superb performance and image quality delivered by 3Dlab's Windows 95 OpenGL implementation has enabled IDS to deliver V*Realm Builder, our powerful and professional VRML 2.0 authoring tools to the volume Windows 95 market," said Mike Hilgenberg, vice president of marketing at Integrated Data Systems.

"We are very pleased with the 3Dlabs announcement. By making OpenGL acceleration available to the Windows 95 user, the experience of using the Lightscape Visualisation System will be enhanced for Lightscape users on the market leading desktop platform," said Barry Dickman, president and CEO of Lightscape Technologies, Inc.

Technical Information

3Dlabs' silicon offerings include the GLINT 500TX, designed to meet the needs of demanding professionals for high-performance, high-resolution, and high-precision 3D graphics; PERMEDIA, which integrates high-performance 2D, 3D and video acceleration into a single chip designed to meet the needs of both consumers and entry level professional markets; and GLINT Delta, a geometry processor that can be utilized to offload geometry and floating point calculations from the host computer for both the GLINT and PERMEDIA processor families.

OpenGL is a industry-standard 3D graphics API developed by Silicon Graphics that provides high-performance graphics for 3D software applications across a wide variety of platforms. Microsoft provides OpenGL implementations for both Windows NT and Windows 95 as a standard operating system component for 3D software applications.

A growing number of professional 3D applications utilize OpenGL on Windows 95, including WorldToolKit from Sense8, SolidWorks 96 from SolidWorks, MicroStation from Bentley Systems, Lightwave from Newtek, Lightscape Visualization System from Lightscape Inc., AVS/Express from Advanced Visual Systems, Open Inventor from Template, OpenGVS from Gemini and RealiMation from Datapath Ltd.

OpenGL is also being used by a growing number of game vendors for the development of high-performance 3D games, most famously by id Software for the "glQuake" version of Quake(R).

Company Information

Founded in 1994, 3Dlabs is a leading innovator and a fabless supplier of high-performance graphics semiconductors, software, and related technologies designed to bring cost-effective 3D graphics to the personal computer. The company has introduced five 3D graphics processors over the last two years with price, performance and functionality designed to meet the needs of different 3D market segments on the PC. The Company markets and sells its award-winning merchant 3D graphics processors to PC and graphics board OEM customers and selectively licenses its embeddable graphics processor cores on a royalty-bearing basis to strategic technology partners such as Texas Instruments. Companies using 3Dlabs' graphics processors in their computers include Compaq, Digital Equipment Corporation, Hewlett-Packard, MaxVision, NEC, NeTpower and Siemens. Leading board manufacturers using 3Dlabs' graphics processors include AccelGraphics, Creative Labs, Diamond Multimedia, Elsa and Symmetric. -0-

Except for historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, such as statements relating to the company's ability to drive technological developments with the company's growth and expansion into markets, and the ability of the company to successfully integrate new technologies, are forward looking statements that are subject to risk and uncertainties, including the ability of the company to continue to obtain design wins for its products; the success of the company's customers in achieving sustained demand for systems incorporating the company's products; the impact of competitive products and pricing and of alternative technological advances; the timely and successful development and market acceptance of new products and upgrades to existing products, and other risks detailed from time-to-time in 3Dlabs' SEC reports. -0-

NOTE TO EDITORS: 3Dlabs and GLINT are registered trademarks and PERMEDIA is a trademark of 3Dlabs Inc., Ltd. Microsoft, Windows, Direct3D, and DirectDraw are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. OpenGL is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc. 3D Studio is a registered trademark and Heidi is a trademark of Autodesk Inc. QuickDraw is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. All other trademarks are acknowledged and recognized.

CONTACT: 3Dlabs Inc.

James Carrington, 408/436-3455

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http://www.3dlabs.com

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Horizon Public Relations 

Jonathan Hirshon, 408/982-2555

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