Announcing the 'Quantum3D Mercury Rising Program'; Heavy Metal GX+ Mercury Systems Purchased in September Include Upgrade to Next Generation Graphics with Significant Price Savings.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 7, 1999--

Quantum3D(TM), the industry leader in PC-based interactive 3D visual computing systems, today announced the "Quantum3D Mercury Rising Program." During September, 1999 customers purchasing new Heavy Metal(TM) GX+ Mercury(TM) systems, featuring full-scene, sub-pixel anti-aliasing, will receive a free upgrade to Quantum3D's next generation advanced realtime 3D graphics subsystem. Customers participating in the Quantum3D Mercury Rising Program will be the first to receive the new subsystems, scheduled to be available in the first quarter of 2000.

Heavy Metal GX+ Mercury systems with dual Intel(R) Pentium(R) III processors, dual independent PCI busses, and Microsoft(R) WindowsNT(R) have a NAFTA list price of $14,999 ($16,999 International). Prices for Heavy Metal GX+ systems equipped with the upgrade configuration of the next generation graphics subsystem are expected to start at around $20,000, giving this offer a value of over $5,000 to customers who purchase Heavy Metal GX+ Mercury systems now. To participate in the Quantum3D Mercury Rising Program, customers must take delivery of systems by October 1, 1999.

"This is a great opportunity for our customers to get high performance, full-scene, sub-pixel anti-aliasing today with priority access to the incredible performance enhancements of our next generation technology," said Rick Bess, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Quantum3D. "Customers can develop their applications now and feel confident of a secure path to new technology, taking full advantage of our high-performance systems today while saving $5,000."

Heavy Metal GX+ Mercury systems have been widely adopted by leaders throughout the visual simulation and training industry including Boeing, CAE, Raydon, Aerobel, Renault, SWRI, STN Atlas, Lantech, the United States National Guard, and the United States Navy. Heavy Metal GX+ Mercury's sustained frame rate performance, cost-effectiveness, advanced realtime rendering features, and ruggedized, rack-mount design make it ideally suited for use in deployed visual simulation applications where advanced anti-aliasing is required for visual realism. With its patent-pending full-scene, sub-pixel anti-aliasing technology, Heavy Metal GX+ Mercury clearly renders cultural features such as power lines, and eliminates distracting visual artifacts such as object popping, edge crawling, and unwanted patterns in replicated texture maps. Heavy Metal GX+ also features Quantum3D's patent-pending SyncLock(TM) and SwapLock(TM) technologies, which enable support for precision multi-channel synchronization for applications requiring wide field-of-view and multiple perspectives.

Heavy Metal GX+ Mercury is based on advanced PC-architecture that is optimized for upgrades to the latest technology. This preserves software compatibility with applications developed for Quantum3D's next generation advanced realtime 3D graphics subsystems, with continuing support for industry-leading 3D graphics APIs and scene management products. Heavy Metal GX+ systems support popular 3D graphics APIs and feature the most comprehensive support in the industry for third party realtime scene management software --including MultiGen-Paradigm's Vega(TM), Soft Reality's SoftVR(TM), Thompson Training and Simulation's Space Magic, Reality2 Tiepolo(TM), and Quantum3D's OpenGVS(TM).

The upgrade configuration is part of the family of next generation graphics subsystems that incorporates Quantum3D's patent-pending anti-aliasing technology. Improvements in silicon and memory technology will enable support for 32-bit per pixel rendering, 24-bit integer or floating point, and Z buffering, as well as a two-fold increase over the current Mercury graphics subsystem in trilinear pixel fill rates, textured polygon throughput, and texture paging rates.. These dramatic improvements will further enhance image quality and visual realism for a wide variety of simulation and training applications. Developers will benefit from sustained realtime frame rates with sharper images, richer scenes, enhanced depth complexity, and improved support for large-area geo-specific textured terrain, while minimizing the porting efforts normally required in adapting software applications to next generation graphics subsystems.

For more information on the Quantum3D Mercury Rising Program, call 1-408-361-9999, send email to [e-mail] or visit our website at www.quantum3d.com. Interested customers can also learn more under non-disclosure by contacting their sales representative or Quantum3D, Inc.

About Quantum3D

Quantum3D, headquartered in San Jose, California, develops and markets integrated interactive visual computing systems, interactive 3D graphics accelerators and system software that combine realtime frame rates, superior image quality, and value. Quantum3D focuses on delivering complete 3D visual computing system level products for the visual simulation, training and out-of-home entertainment markets. Quantum3D's products include the Heavy Metal, Quicksilver(TM), and Graphite(TM) families of integrated interactive 3D visual computing systems, the Obsidian(R), Ventana(TM) AArdvark(TM) and Mercury families of advanced realtime 3D graphics subsystems as well as special purpose I/O products. In addition, Quantum3D creates and distributes unique, market-specific development tools, including OpenGVS realtime 3D scene management software and the Quantum3D QDK(TM), GDK(TM) and IATS(TM) development toolkits for out-of-home entertainment applications--which enable developers to optimize their applications to take full advantage of the company's visual computing systems.

Obsidian is a registered trademark and Quantum3D, Heavy Metal, Mercury, Quicksilver, Graphite, AArdvark, OpenGVS, IATS, GDK, QDK and Ventana are trademarks of Quantum3D. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Information is subject to change without notice.