Quantum3D to Launch AAlchemy Family of Advanced Graphics Subsystems at I/ITSEC 99.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)--Nov. 8, 1999-- Watershed watershed, elevation or divide separating the catchment area, or drainage basin, of one river system or group of river systems from another system or group of systems. The term is also often used synonymously with drainage basin. Product in PC-based Full-Scene, Sub-Pixel Anti-Aliasing Delivers First Gigapixel per Second Performance Quantum3D(TM) Inc., the leader in PC-based interactive 3D visual computing The use of computers for 3D modeling and animation. See visualization. systems, today announced AAlchemy(TM), a watershed realtime 3D graphics subsystem A unit or device that is part of a larger system. For example, a disk subsystem is a part of a computer system. A bus is a part of the computer. A subsystem usually refers to hardware, but it may be used to describe software. family for visual simulation and training applications. AAlchemy will offer the most scalable and advanced PC-based graphics capabilities to date, delivering full-scene, sub-pixel anti-aliasing with greater polygon polygon, closed plane figure bounded by straight line segments as sides. A polygon is convex if any two points inside the polygon can be connected by a line segment that does not intersect any side. If a side is intersected, the polygon is called concave. throughput, a significantly higher fill rate, faster texture download, and improved image quality. The AAlchemy family, a subsystem of Quantum3D's Heavy Metal(TM) GX+ visual computing system, represents the third generation of Quantum3D's unique anti-aliasing technology. It couples Quantum3D's proven, patent-pending products with new architecture founded on upcoming graphics technology from 3dfx(R). AAlchemy will be launched at I/ITSEC I/ITSEC Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference , and can be ordered now via the Quantum3D Mercury(TM) Rising Program. First PC-based Gigapixel Per Second Performance AAlchemy will deliver scalable texture fill rates from 140 megapixels per second to greater than one gigapixel per second, depending on system configuration. AAlchemy features enhanced triangle and texture paging throughput to deliver industry-leading peak textured triangle rates and texture paging performance, capable of supporting 1280 x 1024 resolution or greater. AAlchemy will employ T-Buffer(TM) technology, jointly developed by 3dfx and Quantum3D, which enables the graphics subsystem to deliver unmatched, full-scene sub-pixel anti-aliased image quality, along with previously impossible special effects special effects, in motion pictures, cinematographic techniques that create illusions in the audience's minds as well as the illusions created using these techniques. that significantly enhance visual realism. The AAlchemy architecture approach will enable wide parallelism An overlapping of processing, input/output (I/O) or both. 1. parallelism - parallel processing. 2. (parallel) parallelism - The maximum number of independent subtasks in a given task at a given point in its execution. E.g. for single-pass, full-scene, sub-pixel anti-aliasing and deep parallelism for scalable fill rate. AAlchemy will also exploit the enhanced rendering and texture capabilities in the 3dfx chip to deliver 32-bit per-pixel color and Z, source, and destination alpha-blending, stencil buffering A stencil buffer is an extra buffer, in addition to the color buffer (pixel buffer) and depth buffer (z-buffer) found on modern computer graphics hardware. The buffer is per pixel, and works on integer values, usually with a depth of one byte per pixel. , advanced texture compression, enhanced transparency support, and advanced video capabilities. "Quantum3D delivered the first open architecture PC-based visual computing systems with full-scene, sub-pixel anti-aliasing, and continues to deliver the best value solutions today for developers and integrators in visual simulation and training," said Rick Bess, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for Quantum3D. "The AAlchemy family is the most advanced open architecture, scalable graphics subsystem to date. It is both a revolution in performance and value and an evolution of proven technology. AAlchemy demonstrates Quantum3D's continued commitment to meeting our customers' requirements and give them more choice than ever before." General Information Heavy Metal GX+ with AAlchemy is an open architecture, scalable system that enables single or multi-channel configuration and combines the most advanced industry-standard components with Quantum3D's value-added and patent-pending realtime 3D graphics technologies. Quantum3D systems are compatible with a wide range of leading realtime 3D scene managers such as MultiGen-Paradigm's Vega(TM), Soft Reality's SoftVR(TM), and CG2's Vtree(TM) as well as Quantum3D's OpenGVS(TM); with 3D graphics APIs such as 3dfx Glide See Glide Effortless and Glide PhotoShare. (R) and Microsoft(R) Direct3D(R); with realtime 3D file formats such as OpenFlight(R) and Terra Page(TM); and with leading operating systems Operating systems can be categorized by technology, ownership, licensing, working state, usage, and by many other characteristics. In practice, many of these groupings may overlap. . Leaders in visual simulation and training worldwide have already adopted Heavy Metal GX+ with Quantum3D's advanced graphics subsystem Mercury(TM), delivering PC-based full-scene, sub-pixel anti-aliasing today. Applications developed on Heavy Metal GX+ Mercury systems will run on AAlchemy, enabling Mercury users to upgrade easily to AAlchemy's improved scalability, image quality, and performance. Participants in the Quantum3D Mercury Rising Program (details on the Quantum3D web site at www.quantum3d.com) will receive upgrades to AAlchemy. Quantum3D will announce AAlchemy specifications on November 15th, and will start shipping AAlchemy in Q1 2000. About Quantum3D Quantum3D, San Jose, California San Jose (IPA: /ˌsænhoʊˈzeɪ/) is the third-largest city in California, and the tenth-largest in the United States. It is the county seat of Santa Clara County. , develops and markets integrated interactive 3D visual computing systems, realtime 3D graphics subsystems, and related system software, that combine to deliver sustained realtime frame rates, superior graphics quality, and value. Quantum3D delivers complete 3D visual computing solutions for the visual simulation and training market and the out-of-home entertainment markets, and is the exclusive supplier of 3dfx graphics technology into those markets. In addition, Quantum3D creates and distributes realtime 3D development software tools and products, enabling developers to fully optimize optimize - optimisation their applications to benefit from the company's visual computing systems. Quantum3D, Heavy Metal, Mercury, AAlchemy, SimGL, and OpenGVS are trademarks of Quantum3D. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion