Creative Labs Uses New Games-oriented GLINT 3D processor in 3D Blaster Games Board; arcade-quality, texture-mapped 3D graphics enabled on consumer-level games board; GLINT family now includes games chips and workstation class accelerators; many high-quality 3D titles running on the GLINT architecture.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)--Aug. 16, 1995--3Dlabs Inc. today announced that Creative Labs' 3D Blaster(TM) 3D games board is powered by a new games version of the GLINT(R) 3D processor chip -- co-developed by both Creative and 3Dlabs. The new GLINT chip provides real-time, true-perspective, texture-mapped graphics -- at a price point suitable for consumer products. 3D Blaster's performance and visual quality outclasses the latest generation 32-bit games consoles, even when used on `486 class machines. 3D Blaster will also provide affordable acceleration for emerging 3D desktop applications such as VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) A 3D graphics language used on the Web. After downloading a VRML page, its contents can be viewed, rotated and manipulated. Simulated rooms can be "walked into." The VRML viewer is launched from within the Web browser. 3D internet browsers. Creative's 3D Blaster was first shown at Creativity '95 in San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden , and the board has already been shipped to many key software developers. The 3D Blaster will be shipping in volume in time for the Christmas '95 buying season. Creative licensed the GLINT technology from 3Dlabs last year, and the two companies have collaborated to develop the games chip to specifically meet Creative's needs. The games-tuned GLINT chip has been designed to provide arcade-quality interactive 3D performance, including texture-mapping (with true perspective correction Perspective correction or perspective control is a procedure for composing or editing photographs to better conform with the commonly accepted distortions in constructed perspective. and filtering for high visual quality), 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. , optional Z-buffering, fogging, blending, translucency, overlays, and stencils -- at the minimum possible cost. The chip accelerates polygonal pol·y·gon n. A closed plane figure bounded by three or more line segments. po·lyg  o·nal adj. graphics and provides seamless and transparent acceleration for titles coded in any of the industry-standard APIs -- including the upcoming 3D game APIs for Microsoft(R) Windows 95(TM). Creative is working aggressively with key games developers to ensure that a substantial number of leading 3D-enabled titles will be running on the GLINT-based 3D Blaster by Christmas. Several hundred high-end GLINT boards were seeded to key developers at the beginning of 1995 to enable title development to commence. The games version of GLINT complements 3Dlabs' existing professional-class chip -- the GLINT 300SX -- which accelerates productivity applications such as CAD, modeling, animation and games authoring. The GLINT 300SX provides workstation levels of performance and functionality -- typically using the OpenGL(R) or QuickDraw 3D(TM) APIs. An increasing number of game developers are using authoring and modeling tools on the PC -- enabled by professional-class GLINT boards. 3Dlabs is aggressively developing new generations of chips for both the games and professional market segments. Quotes "We have cooperated very closely with 3Dlabs to define the standard for 3D games on the PC, and they have delivered with great silicon that worked first time -- an amazing feat for such a complex design," said Hock hock: see wine. Leow, vice president of the video and graphics product group at Creative. "GLINT provides stunning performance, and we are getting excellent feedback on 3D Blaster's rendering quality and functionality from the game developer community. 3Dlabs is clearly the leader in 3D graphics chip technology, and we look forward to working with them to continue to push the limits of 3D gaming on the PC." "Creative is going to be the leading player in the 3D games market for the PC," said Osman Kent, president of 3Dlabs. "Creative has the best channel, the resources, extensive developer relationships -- and now the best 3D technology. Our strategy of developing chips for both the professional and games segments of the 3D market is really paying off -- we can cost-optimize proven 3D acceleration architectures to provide the functionality games developers need -- at a price point that sets a new benchmark in the industry." "With GLINT, Creative is going to ship product in time for Christmas '95, establishing an early lead in the 3D games market," said Henry Choy, director of marketing, entertainment products, at 3Dlabs. "The key to the success of any games platform is the number and quality of titles, and Creative has done an excellent job in working with the industry's key developers to assemble an impressive array of quality games for Christmas." The GLINT Processor Chip Family The GLINT family of 3D processors includes chips aimed at the professional user of 3D graphics on the desktop, and games-players looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. the ultimate 3D experience. The professional-class 3D chip -- the GLINT 300SX -- has been designed around the OpenGL standard to support workstation-class CAD, visualization, modeling and games authoring applications and has been shipping in volume since January 1995. The GLINT 300SX provides 100% of the OpenGL rendering operations in silicon, and includes support for anti-aliasing, 32 bit color, retained alpha-buffer and deep 24 or 32 bit Z buffers. The second generation of professional-class chips -- the GLINT 400TX -- will be pin-compatible with the 300SX, adds full OpenGL 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" in silicon, including support for tri-linear mip-mapping, and will ship later this year. The 3D games chip used on 3D Blaster has been developed exclusively for use by Creative, and provides highly-interactive, texture-mapped 3D graphics at a price-point suitable for consumer products. Company Information 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 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 authoring, simulation, virtual reality, interactive TV and video games See video game console. . Currently, over 40 companies have incorporated GLINT into their 3D products and GLINT is recognized as the industry-standard accelerator architecture for high-performance 3D graphics on the PC. 3Dlabs provides GLINT-optimized drivers for many industry-leading graphics APIs, allowing a growing number of applications to achieve 3D interactivity on low cost platforms. Referred to by the "The Red Herring Red Herring A preliminary registration statement that must be filed with the SEC describing a new issue of stock (IPO) and the prospects of the issuing company. Notes: " investment magazine as "the first member of the next generation of chip vendors", 3Dlabs Inc., headquartered in San Jose, Calif., was founded in April 1994, and is privately owned. -0- Note to Editors: 3Dlabs is a trademark, and GLINT is a registered trademark of 3Dlabs Inc. Ltd. 3D Blaster is a trademark of Creative Labs. Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation (company) Microsoft Corporation - The biggest supplier of operating systems and other software for IBM PC compatibles. Software products include MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, Windows NT, Microsoft Access, LAN Manager, MS Client, SQL Server, Open Data Base Connectivity (ODBC), MS Mail, in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. and/or other countries. OpenGL is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics Inc. QuickDraw 3D is a trademark of Apple Computer Inc. All other trademarks are acknowledged. CONTACT: 3Dlabs Inc. 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. , 408/436-3456 Email: neil.trevett@3dlabs.com Henry Choy, 408/436-3451 Email: henry.choy@3dlabs.com or 3Dlabs Web Page http://www.3Dlabs.com/3Dlabs or Horizon Public Relations public relations, activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most Jonathan Hirshon, 408/982-2555 Email: jh@horizonpr.com |
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