AccelGraphics' AG500 High-Performance OpenGL Graphics Accelerator Board to be Formally Certified for Use with Softimage; AccelGraphics Brings High-Performance 3D Graphics to the Windows NT Animation Market; AG500 used extensively in Softimage 3D for Windows NT Beta Testing.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 16, 1996--AccelGraphics Inc., the leading supplier of PCI-based 3D graphics accelerators for the PC workstation market, today announced that its AG500 graphics accelerator board has been certified for use with Softimage 3D for Windows NT.

Featuring 12.5 MB of on-board RAM for frame buffer and overlay support, the PC board inexpensively delivers the high-end graphics performance and features that were previously only available on costly UNIX workstations.

Greg Milliken, vice president of marketing for AccelGraphics, stated, "With the AG500, we're delivering the high-end capabilities that are vital to the animation market - which is why our boards were extensively tested at a majority of the Softimage beta sites.

"Our strategy of working closely with application vendors has translated into a dominant position in the 3D PC CAD/CAM market in 1995. We plan to repeat this strategy in the animation and visualization market in 1996 by working with leading vendors, such as Softimage."

Leoung O'Young, president, Digimata, and AccelGraphics/Softimage customer, noted: "With the AccelGraphics AG500 graphics accelerator and Softimage 3D 3.0 for Windows NT, our PCs are delivering high-end animation performance that's similar to our UNIX-based workstations. The best part is that the PCs are a fraction of the cost of the UNIX systems, which allows us to cost-effectively increase our production bandwidth."

The AG500 supports high-end features like double buffered overlay planes, allowing users to dynamically manipulate portions of a very complex scene without requiring the system to redraw the entire scene (only the object being manipulated is redrawn in the overlay, superimposed on the rest of the scene). This significantly increases the performance and responsiveness of the system, providing a much more interactive and dynamic feel that greatly enhances user productivity.

"We are very pleased that AccelGraphics' AG500 graphics accelerator has been certified for Softimage 3D for Windows NT on NetPower and Alpha XL Systems," stated Shirish Nadkarni, director of marketing for Softimage at Microsoft. "AccelGraphics has been actively involved since the early stages of development of Softimage 3D for Windows NT. The company is a great example of innovation in the Windows NT market."

The AG500 board supports screen resolutions up to 1280x1024, 16 bit double buffering, a 24 bit Z buffer, double buffered overlay planes, stencils and window IDs. Full support for dual screen configurations is provided, enabling customers to effectively double their screen real estate by displaying high-performance OpenGL graphics on both screens.

These powerful features, along with outstanding performance, enable a PC equipped with the AG500 to deliver high-speed viewing and rendering equivalent to that of an expensive UNIX-based workstation - at a fraction of the cost. The AG500 thus makes Windows NT an ideal platform for visually intensive 3D applications, including animation, mechanical design, plant design and walkthrough and scientific visualization.

The AG500's powerful graphics processor is capable of up to 300K Gouraud shaded triangles per second and up to one million 3D vectors per second. The AG500's innovative architecture also allows performance to scale with the power of the main CPU. Faster processors deliver proportionately faster graphics, lengthening the useful life of the AG500 and providing investment protection in the fast-changing computer industry.

This is bolstered by AccelGraphics' aggressive strategy of supporting all popular Windows NT platforms, including those based on the Intel Pentium, Digital's Alpha AXP and SGI's MIPS processors. This support ensures that a broad choice of platforms with exceptional price/performance characteristics are available for all AccelGraphics' 3D graphics and imaging accelerators.

In addition to supporting animation and popular CAD applications, the AG500 ships with optimized drivers for Windows NT (which includes a highly-tuned OpenGL installable client driver), ensuring support and increased performance for thousands of other PC applications.

Certification, Pricing and Availability

The AG500 is currently certified by Softimage for the following hardware configurations:

-- Digital Equipment Corporation Alpha 21064A and Alpha 21164

AlphaStation 600

-- NetPower Corporation MIPS RISC R4400 (220 MHz or better)

NetPower FASTseries.

Certification is pending for other configurations, including Intel-based platforms.

The AG500, at a list price of $3,495, is available immediately from any authorized AccelGraphics reseller and distributor.

AccelGraphics Inc.

AccelGraphics Inc. develops, manufactures and markets high-performance 3D graphics and image processing accelerators for computer-aided design, imaging, animation and visualization markets. Sales distribution is managed through select VARs, OEMs and technical distributors with expertise in these target markets.

AccelGraphics' 3D graphics accelerators enable technical professionals to visualize 3D data such as designs and models of mechanical parts and assemblies quickly and interactively, thereby dramatically enhancing user productivity when using 3D applications.

AccelGraphics' line of higher-performance 3D graphics accelerators delivers high-end workstation graphics performance on platforms supporting the standard, high-bandwidth PCI bus. Supported systems include those based on Intel Corporation's Pentium processor, as well as other processors such as the Alpha AXP and MIPS.

AccelGraphics Inc. is headquartered in San Jose and can be reached via phone at: 800/444-5699 FAX: [phone] and Internet: [e-mail] -0-

NOTE TO EDITORS: AccelGraphics and AG500 are trademarks of AccelGraphics Inc. All other trademarks, service marks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective companies.

CONTACT: AccelGraphics Inc.

Greg Milliken, 408/441-1556

E-mail: [e-mail]

or

Sterling Communications

Carol Nash, 408/441-4100

E-mail: [e-mail]