3Dlabs and Criterion Software partner for real-time 3D graphics.SAN JOSE San Jose, city, United States San Jose (sănəzā`, săn hōzā`), city (1990 pop. 782,248), seat of Santa Clara co., W central Calif.; founded 1777, inc. 1850. , Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 7, 1994--3Dlabs and Criterion Software Ltd. Monday announced a partnership to integrate 3Dlabs' GLINT A legacy family of 2D and 3D processors from 3D Labs, Inc., a division of Creative Technology Ltd., Milpitas, CA (www.3dlabs.com) that were widely used in high-end display adapters. 3D processor chip with Criterion's RenderWare 3D Application Programming Interface (API). The collaboration provides seamless 3D acceleration for RenderWare-based games and virtual reality applications running on GLINT-based boards. GLINT's powerful 3D rendering capabilities substantially boost both the performance and picture quality of 3D applications developed using RenderWare. "3Dlabs is committed to bringing widely-used APIs to the GLINT architecture, and RenderWare has been adopted by many games and virtual reality applications," said Neil Trevett Neil Trevett is currently Vice President of Embedded Content at NVIDIA. He is responsible for enabling and encouraging compelling applications on non-PC platforms, including cell phones and automobiles. Prior to joining NVIDIA, Mr. , Vice President of Marketing at 3Dlabs. "Our close collaboration with Criterion will ensure a seamless integration An addition of a new application, routine or device that works smoothly with the existing system. It implies that the new feature or program can be installed and used without problems. Contrast with "transparent," which implies that there is no discernible change after installation. between GLINT and RenderWare applications. RenderWare has excellent software-only performance, and now RenderWare based applications can seamlessly scale to hardware rendering Performing the computations necessary to construct output for the printer or screen by following instructions hardwired into a chip. Given computers with equal speed, hardware rendering is faster than software rendering. See render. speeds." "Applications from the 200+ developers who have licensed RenderWare will now be able to take advantage of the performance and visual quality offered by GLINT-based hardware," said Mike King, Executive Vice President at Criterion Software. "RenderWare applications will transparently take advantage of the GLINT processor through a dynamically loadable RenderWare device driver. Access to GLINT performance will open new market opportunities for our customers, who are scheduled to ship 25 RenderWare based titles before the end of 1994." The 3Dlabs/Criterion partnership is non-exclusive, with both companies continuing to offer alternative choices of APIs and hardware platforms Each hardware platform, or CPU family, has a unique machine language. All software presented to the computer for execution must be in the binary coded machine language of that CPU. Following is a list of the major hardware platforms in existence today. See platform. to their customers. RenderWare and GLINT RenderWare, launched in December 1993, is the first interactive 3D graphics API for Windows/DOS. RenderWare's strength lies in it's ability to provide real-time 3D graphics on PCs without the need for a 3D graphics accelerator A display adapter that performs a specialized set of graphics functions to render an image on screen. Today, all display adapters provide basic rendering functions in hardware, but many have graphics processing units (GPUs) that are sophisticated computers. , and yet when it detects the presence of a 3D accelerator RenderWare transparently accelerates the application to even higher levels of performance, greater resolution and greater color depths. RenderWare provides an excellent development environment for incorporating real-time 3D graphics into games, CAD, Virtual Reality and Business applications. A number of major software developers have announced that they have licensed RenderWare including Asymetrix Corp. and Velocity Development. Velocity Development 3Dlabs' GLINT processor packs the equivalent of a high-end workstation graphics board-set onto a single chip, and is capable of 300K shaded, depth buffered, anti-aliased polygons/second. GLINT provides complete 32-bit color, 2D and 3D acceleration, an on-chip PCI-compliant local bus interface and integrated LUT-DAC control, making a complete graphics subsystem possible with minimal chip count. GLINT implements all the 3D rendering operations in silicon, including Gouraud shading In 3D graphics, a technique developed by Henri Gouraud in the early 1970s that computes a shaded surface based on the color and illumination at the corners of every triangle. Gouraud shading is the simplest rendering method and is computed faster than Phong shading. , depth buffering, anti-aliasing and texture mapping In computer graphics, the application of a type of surface to a 3D image. A texture can be uniform, such as a brick wall, or irregular, such as wood grain or marble. The common method is to create a 2D bitmapped image of the texture, called a "texture map," which is then "wrapped around" , making it ideal for accelerating any polygon-based 3D API. Comdex Fall 94 RenderWare will be demonstrated at many booths during Comdex Fall 94, including Canon, the parent company of Criterion. GLINT will be demonstrating in the 3Dlabs' booth at Comdex Fall 94, and at the booths of many of 3Dlabs' customers. 3Dlabs can be found at Comdex on the first floor of the Labs Vegas Hilton in Room 2 (H2). Company Information Criterion Software Ltd., a subsidiary of Canon Inc. (Tokyo, Japan) is the leader in interactive 3D graphics software tools for personal computers. Criterion develops, markets and supports computer software products and technologies that expand the interactive 3D graphics frontiers on the desktop. The company licenses its products and technology to major developers world-wide through its offices in Sunnyvale, Calif.; Guildford, England and Tokyo. 3Dlabs is a worldwide OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) The rebranding of equipment and selling it. The term initially referred to the company that made the products (the "original" manufacturer), but eventually became widely used to refer to the organization that buys the products and supplier of chips, enabling software and technology licensing for 3D graphics. The company's products enable board and system manufacturers to integrate 3D capabilities into their products for such applications as CAD, multimedia, simulation, virtual reality, interactive TV and video games See video game console. . 3Dlabs Inc., headquartered in San Jose was founded in April 1994, following a management buyout Management buyout (MBO) Leveraged buyout whereby the acquiring group is led by the firm's management. management buyout See going private. of Du Pont Du Pont (d  pŏnt), family notable in U.S. industrial history. The Du Pont family's importance began when Eleuthère Irénée Du Pont established a gunpowder mill on the Pixel, and is privately owned.-0- Note to Editors: 3Dlabs and GLINT are trademarks of 3Dlabs Inc. Ltd. RenderWare is a registered trademark of Canon Inc. Other notations of (TM) and (R) are trademarks of their respective firms. CONTACT: 3Dlabs Inc., San Jose
Neil Trevett, 408/436-3456
Email: neil.trevett@3dlabs.com
Criterion Software, Sunnyvale
Steve Mosher, 408/489-5103 or 800/622-8005
The Benjamin Group Inc.
Jonathan Hirshon or Andy Ramm, 408/559-6090
Email: Jonathan@eworld.com
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