AccelGraphics improves 3D graphics accelerator performance by more than 90%; new high-performance "Turbo" driver for AccelGraphics' AG300 and AG500 substantially increases company's lead in Windows NT 3D graphics price/performance.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 18, 1995--AccelGraphics Inc., the leading supplier of PCI-based 3D graphics accelerators for Windows NT, today announced the release of its new high-performance "Turbo" driver for Intel-based platforms.

The new driver will increase 3D performance for the AG300 and AG500 boards by over 90%, and in direct performance tests with actual applications, delivered between 10 and 20 times greater performance than software-only rendering. Performance improvements have been measured using industry standard benchmarks such as GLPerf and ViewPerf, as well as by running actual shipping 3D applications that use OpenGL as their 3D graphics API.

The new "Turbo" driver is bundled with both the AG300 and AG500 at no additional charge and is immediately available to all AccelGraphics customers and resellers via the AccelGraphics BBS.

As a full OpenGL source code licensee, AccelGraphics has invested well over 40 man-years into the optimization of its highly-tuned "Installable Client" OpenGL driver. This high-performance driver seamlessly passes OpenGL calls from any OpenGL-based 3D application directly to the AccelGraphics acceleration hardware, resulting in tremendous improvements in 3D graphics performance.

"All Intel-based applications supported by the AG300 and AG500 will see substantial performance improvements with our new Turbo driver release," said Greg Milliken, vice president of marketing for AccelGraphics.

"Our new driver will add tremendous value to customers using a variety of popular applications such as Pro/ENGINEER, Pro/JR., I-DEAS Master Series and AVS/Express. In fact, in direct testing with AVS/Express, we are now seeing between 10- and 20-fold performance gains with the new driver over software-only rendering."

"AccelGraphics continues to push the performance envelope for 3D graphics on Intel platforms," stated Richard Bowles, director of workstation market development at Intel.

"The performance delivered by their new Turbo driver further reinforces that a high-performance Intel Architecture system coupled with an AccelGraphics 3D accelerator is a very appealing alternative to traditional workstations. We are also excited that the performance of AccelGraphics' products scales with the CPU performance, as well as the products' being designed to take full advantage of Intel's future processors in high-performance 3D workstations."

"The performance gains delivered by AccelGraphics' new Turbo driver illustrate that Windows NT delivers a rich environment for demanding 3D applications," said Kate Seekings, 3D technology evangelist for Microsoft Corp. "AccelGraphics continues to deliver great 3D graphics price-performance for OpenGL-based applications running under Windows NT, and we intend to support them in their ongoing efforts to make the PC the platform of choice for production 3D design, animation, and visualization."

The AccelGraphics AG300 and AG500 are designed to take advantage of a variety of market-leading technologies, including high-speed processors like Intel's Pentium and P6; advanced PC operating systems (including Windows NT); and standard graphics Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) like OpenGL. In addition, their powerful graphics processor is capable of up to 250K Gouraud shaded triangles per second and up to 750K 3D vectors per second.

Furthermore, these products' innovative architecture allows performance to scale with the power of the main CPU. Faster processors deliver proportionately faster graphics performance, lengthening the useful life of the board and providing investment protection in the rapidly changing computer industry.

AccelGraphics Inc. is headquartered in San Jose, CA. Telephone: [phone]. Internet: [e-mail]. World Wide Web: http://www.accelgraphics.com.

CONTACT: AccelGraphics Inc.

Greg Milliken, 800/444-5699

or

Sterling Communications Inc.

Carol Nash, 408/441-4100