Trident Microsystems among first to deliver integrated 64-bit 3D multimedia accelerator; T3D9692 accelerator tailored to accelerate PC games for home PCs.MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 10, 1995--Trident Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on :TRID TRID Training Requirement Identification Display TRID Transaction Identifier TRID Trident Display ), announced today the inclusion of 3D graphics acceleration within its popular line of 64-bit Graphical User Interface graphical user interface (GUI) Computer display format that allows the user to select commands, call up files, start programs, and do other routine tasks by using a mouse to point to pictorial symbols (icons) or lists of menu choices on the screen as opposed to having to (GUI (Graphical User Interface) A graphics-based user interface that incorporates movable windows, icons and a mouse. The ability to resize application windows and change style and size of fonts are the significant advantages of a GUI vs. a character-based interface. ) and video accelerators. The T3D T3D Massively Parallel Supercomputer 9692 64-bit graphics accelerator A display adapter that performs a specialized set of graphics functions to render an image on screen. Today, all display adapters provide basic rendering functions in hardware, but many have graphics processing units (GPUs) that are sophisticated computers. is among the first available integrated 2D, 3D and video solution. By offering all of these features in one graphics accelerator, fewer chips are required and system performance is improved. The T3D9692 accelerator's triple integration enables significant savings to Trident customers -- 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 system manufacturers who are looking to offer high performance 3D multimedia functionality to the consumer. The 3D chip combines 2D graphics and video acceleration with the 3D technology first introduced in Trident's discrete T3D2000 accelerator (see June 12, 1995). Pier Del Frate, Trident's assistant vice president of strategic planning Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people. and marketing commented, "The T3D9692 integrated 3D, graphics and video accelerator expands Trident's product offerings to cover one of the fastest growing segments of the PC industry, the PC games market. Improved 3D performance yields higher frame rates for smoother animation and more photo realistic image quality -- essential ingredients for the next generation of PC's. We expect this market to be a significant focal point focal point n. See focus. for Trident and the industry in 1996." The T3D9692 chip's 3D functions are enhanced through Microsoft's Direct3D, DirectDraw and DirectVideo architectures. These enhancements include support for 3D features including perspective-correct texture mapping, transparent BitBLT and texture filtering. The T3D9692 accelerator also includes Trident's proprietary edge smoothing TrueVideo technology that enables both horizontal and vertical interpolation interpolation In mathematics, estimation of a value between two known data points. A simple example is calculating the mean (see mean, median, and mode) of two population counts made 10 years apart to estimate the population in the fifth year. for video quality that is significantly better than other competitors. Pin-compatible with Trident's TGUI TGUI Timeline Graphical User Interface TGUI Traffic Management Advisor Graphical User Interface 9680 and TGUI9682 integrated GUI and video accelerators, the T3D9692 accelerator enables OEM vendors to offer numerous graphics and video solutions using a single board design. "Designers and add-in board manufacturers now have the flexibility to create a variety of designs with our pin-compatible graphics accelerators," said Rick Allen, Trident's 3D product marketing manager. "Major PC and add-in card manufacturers have expressed keen interest in an integrated 3D product because it provides high-end functionality at a relative low cost. With the T3D9692 chip, these manufacturers can access the evolving PC multimedia games market by designing a graphics, video and 3D accelerator board for under $200." In order for Trident's new integrated 3D, graphics and video accelerator to reach the broad consumer PC market, software developers must have access to this technology. To facilitate this movement, Trident established its "Third Dimension" software developer program (see release Sept. 15, 1995), a program that provides developers with evaluation boards on the T3D2000 chip as well as documentation and software development tools for porting to this technology. The T3D9692 integrated 3D, GUI and video accelerator is part of Trident's early introduction of products based on Unified Memory Architecture (UMA (1) (Unlicensed Mobile Access) See GAN. (2) (Upper Memory Area) Memory in a PC between 640K and 1M. More relevant in the days of DOS, this region was broken into Upper Memory Blocks (UMB) reserved for video memory and other ). This novel architecture reduces overall system costs by enabling PCs to combine system memory for graphics display. This offers potential savings to multimedia system manufacturers of up to $60 per system. Trident was among the first to volume produce products supporting this cost-saving innovation when it released its TGUI9682 integrated GUI and video accelerator and its Cyber9385 LCD controller. Pricing for the T3D9692 accelerator starts at $37 in quantities of 10K. Samples are available in Q1 1996 with volume shipping expected in Q2 1996. Trident Microsystems, Inc., headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., designs, develops and markets integrated circuit graphics controllers and multimedia video processing chipsets for IBM-compatible PCs. Trident products are sold through a network of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), original design manufacturers (ODMs) and system integrators world-wide. -0- Note to Editors: Trident, T3D9692, TGUI9682, Cyber9385 and T3D2000 are trademarks of Trident Microsystems, Inc. TrueVideo is a registered trademark of Trident Microsystems, Inc. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. CONTACT: Trident Microsystems Lawren Farber, 415/691-9211 Ext. 257 or Morgen-Walke Associates Suzanne Craig or Lisa Laukkanen, 415/296-7383 Elissa Grabowski, 212/850-5600 or Tsantes & Associates Nancy Sheffield, 408/452-8700 |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion