3Dlabs and Silicon Graphics Sign Agreement to Bring Accelerated VRML-based 3D Internet Browsing to the PC; 3Dlabs-based graphics vendors can bundle industry-leading Cosmo Player browser software with their PC and Macintosh products; Cosmo Player will be fully accelerated on GLINT and PERMEDIA through 3Dlabs' OpenGL and QuickDraw 3D drivers.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 29, 1997--3Dlabs (R) Inc. (NASDAQ: TDDDF) today announced that it has entered a software licensing agreement with Silicon Graphics, Inc. (NYSE: SGI) (Mountain View, CA) to bundle, at no-charge, Silicon Graphics' Cosmo(tm) Player software with 3Dlabs' PERMEDIA(tm) and GLINT(R) 3D processors.

The terms of the agreement enable 3Dlabs to distribute binary copies of the Microsoft(R) Windows(R) and Mac(tm) OS versions of the player to all its customers and OEMs. 3Dlabs will act as a facilitator for its OEMs to directly arrange their own Cosmo Player licenses with Silicon Graphics if required.

Cosmo Player, available as both a plug-in to Navigator and Explorer browsers, enables web surfers to experience interactive 3D environments created with the VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) 2.0 standard. VRML is the acknowledged industry standard for creating and interacting with 3D worlds on the Internet and is supported by Apple Computer, IBM, Microsoft, Netscape, Silicon Graphics, 3Dlabs and many others.

3Dlabs and Silicon Graphics have also agreed to aggressively promote VRML deployment across the PC and Macintosh platforms through cooperative marketing and OEM channel development. Graphics board vendors who will have access to Cosmo Player through this agreement include AccelGraphics, Canopus, Creative Labs, Diamond Multimedia, ELSA, Leadtek, Omnicomp, Newer, Radius and Symmetric. System vendors who utilize GLINT and PERMEDIA in their 3D graphics solutions include Acer, Compaq, DEC, Epson, Hewlett-Packard, NEC, NeTpower, Samsung, Siemens and Tri-Star.

Cosmo Player, expected to be distributed by 3Dlabs from mid-1997, takes full advantage of the 3D acceleration provided by 3Dlabs' GLINT and PERMEDIA graphics processors through standard APIs -- OpenGL on Windows and QuickDraw 3D on the Macintosh(R).

PERMEDIA-based boards, such as those announced by Diamond Multimedia and Creative Labs, provide a low-cost platform with fully-integrated VGA, 2D and video acceleration with robust and fully-conformant OpenGL drivers, including fully-compliant OpenGL acceleration under Windows 95. OpenGL is suitable for accelerating all pervasive 3D applications ranging from web-browsers such as Cosmo Player, to multimedia authoring packages, business applications and games.

Quotes

"3Dlabs is committed to enabling highly interactive VRML-based 3D applications on the web, and the combination of Cosmo Player with 3Dlabs silicon is good news for PC and Mac-based VRML users," said Neil Trevett, vice president of marketing at 3Dlabs.

"Cosmo Player is a great cross-platform VRML solution and getting it into the hands of every GLINT and PERMEDIA user is a significant step towards making 3D pervasive on the PC desktop. Silicon Graphics is a valued partner for 3Dlabs in this arena and we look forward to a successful, long-term relationship with them and a bright future for VRML."

"By working with 3Dlabs and their chip customers we can get Cosmo Player into a large proportion of the PC end-users with fast Windows-based OpenGL performance," said Kai-Fu Lee vice president and general manager of the Web Products Division at Silicon Graphics. "3Dlabs has been a long-term partner for Silicon Graphics working on OpenGL, and now running Cosmo Player on 3Dlabs' low-cost OpenGL compliant processors provides great VRML interactivity at low-cost."

GLINT and PERMEDIA Information

GLINT and PERMEDIA are the two graphics processor families from 3Dlabs. GLINT provides workstation-class 3D functionality and performance, fully integrated with fast 2D Windows acceleration. PERMEDIA provides a low-cost graphics processor that integrates fast VGA, video, 2D and 3D acceleration on a single chip for consumer and entry-level professional boards. Both GLINT and PERMEDIA-based boards support the 3Dlabs OpenGL and QuickDraw 3D drivers and will accelerate Cosmo Player.

GLINT 500TX is the second generation GLINT processor that supports high-resolution displays up to 2Kx2K at 32 bits, large texture memories up to 32 MBytes, deep 32 bit color and Z buffers, and accelerates 100% of OpenGL rendering operations in silicon -- including advanced texture-mapping, anti-aliasing, stenciling and alpha blending. GLINT-based boards are typically used for accelerating authoring applications used to create complex 3D models and VRML-based worlds.

PERMEDIA is a fully-integrated single-chip graphics processor that combines mainstream, no-compromise 2D functionality and performance with second-generation 3D graphics.

PERMEDIA-based boards provide fast SVGA, 64-bit 2D windows acceleration delivering over 60 Winmarks, 30 frames-per-second MPEG-based video playback, and over 40 million texture-mapped, bilinear-filtered 3D pixels-per-second through standard APIs such as OpenGL, QuickDraw 3D and Direct3D. Consumers with PERMEDIA-based boards are able to author their own 3D content and view VRML-based environments with high levels of interactivity.

The GLINT and PERMEDIA processor families are currently the only silicon shipping with an OpenGL Installable Client Driver, providing highly-optimized and fully-compliant OpenGL performance, integrated seamlessly with Microsoft Windows NT and Windows 95.

Company Information

3Dlabs is a leading innovator and supplier of high performance, cost-effective graphics semiconductors, software, and related technology designed to bring high-speed 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 diverse 3D market segments. The Company markets and sells its 3D graphics merchant processors to PC and graphics board OEM customers and licenses its embeddable graphics processor cores on a royalty-bearing basis to strategic technology partners.

Companies bundling 3Dlabs-based accelerators in their computers include Compaq, Digital Equipment Corporation, Hewlett-Packard, NeTpower and Siemens. Leading board manufacturers using 3Dlabs accelerators include AccelGraphics, Creative Labs, Diamond Multimedia, Elsa, Leadtek and Symmetric. -0-

Note to Editors: 3Dlabs and GLINT are registered trademarks and PERMEDIA is a trademark of 3Dlabs Inc. Ltd. Microsoft, Windows and Direct3D 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. Macintosh and Power Macintosh are registered trademarks and QuickDraw is a trademark of Apple Computer Inc. All other trademarks are acknowledged and recognized.

CONTACT: 3Dlabs Inc.

Neil Trevett, 408/436-3455

[e-mail]

http://www.3dlabs.com

or

Horizon Public Relations 

Jonathan Hirshon, 408/982-2555

[e-mail]

http://www.horizonpr.com