3Dlabs GLINT Chip Brings Real-Time Virtual Reality to the Internet; New Virtual Reality Internet standard is seamlessly accelerated by GLINT-based boards on desktop PCs; GLINT endorsed for new software from Silicon Graphics, Template Graphics and Netscape

Business Wire, April 3, 1995

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 3, 1995--3Dlabs Inc. today announced that the company's GLINT(r) 3D graphics accelerator chip is the first device to be certified as supporting and fully accelerating the new Internet 3D graphics standard, called VRML(tm) (Virtual Reality Modelling Language), which will bring 3D graphics and virtual reality to personal computer users of the World Wide Web.

New software products from Silicon Graphics, Inc. (Mountain View, CA) (SGI) and Template Graphics Software (San Diego, CA) (TGS) use VRML to integrate 3D viewing, browsing and navigation with the Internet, and Netscape Communications is integrating the new VRML products into the upcoming release of Netscape 1.1.

All of these companies have endorsed GLINT as providing significantly enhanced speed and open architecture support for VRML, and they also cited 3Dlabs' major involvement in the evangelism and support of the OpenGL(r) 3D Application Programming Interface (API), which was originally developed by SGI. With GLINT-based graphics boards, VRML browser software will be seamlessly accelerated for a real-time 3D experience, even on low-cost desktop PCs and Macintosh(r) systems.

As part of this announcement, SGI and TGS today introduced the first-ever VRML Internet browser, WebSpace, an add-on module to existing Web browsers. TGS will be shipping the Open Inventor Software Developer Kit (SDK) with VRML Internet extensions compatible with GLINT boards in the April timeframe. WebSpace for Windows NT(tm), which will also plug-and-play with GLINT boards, will ship within 60 days. Both Open Inventor and WebSpace use OpenGL as their graphics rendering engine, and GLINT silicon was specifically designed to offer the highest speed processing of all OpenGL commands and operations.

3Dlabs and TGS will also cooperate for a continued tight integration of WebSpace and other VRML software with the GLINT family of 3D processor chips, including integrating OpenGL, Open Inventor and WebSpace onto GLINT for the Power Macintosh.

GLINT-accelerated Open Inventor and WebSpace for the Power Macintosh are slated for summer release.

"The tight integration of Open Inventor and WebSpace with OpenGL makes all GLINT boards VRML-ready," said Terry Baker, President of TGS. "3Dlabs has been very proactive in ensuring that their hardware is tightly integrated with Open Inventor and VRML products from TGS. We're extremely impressed with the quality and speed of our OpenGL-based software running on GLINT, and high-performance 3D on affordable platforms such as the PC and Mac is vital to our software's success."

"We welcome 3Dlabs providing cost-effective 3D acceleration for the PC, as it enables our software and technology on a wide range of desktops," said Way Ting, General Manager for the Visual Magic Division at Silicon Graphics. "3Dlabs are an extremely active partner with Silicon Graphics in making OpenGL a de-facto 3D standard, which in turn broadens the adoption and use of 3D technologies. We feel very strongly that as people begin to recognize the benefits of 3D on the desktop, they will turn to Silicon Graphics workstation technology to bring them to the next level of totally-integrated 3D performance and design."

"With VRML layered upon the OpenGL graphics standard, GLINT-based boards will provide plug and play acceleration to WebSpace," said Neil Trevett, vice president of marketing at 3Dlabs. "Over 40 vendors plan to introduce GLINT boards in the coming months, bringing real-time 3D Internet interaction to PC desktops. Our cooperation with TGS shows that we continue to add value to our board-level customers by ensuring a wealth of application software that is optimized for GLINT. GLINT-board users can now surf the net and really experience the web as cyberspace!"

"This is an important step in the growth of 3D graphics acceleration into a high-volume market," added Trevett. "3D has joined 2D and video as part of the Internet multimedia mix much faster than many people thought was possible and we are very proud that GLINT has played such an integral role in making this happen."

The 3Dlabs GLINT processor incorporates the equivalent of a high-end workstation graphics board-set in a single chip. Target platforms include desktop personal computers, workstations and embedded systems. GLINT is capable of processing 300,000 shaded, depth buffered and anti-aliased polygons/second. The chip provides complete 32-bit color, 2D and 3D acceleration, an on-chip PCI-compliant local bus interface and integrated LUT-DAC control, making a complete graphics subsystem possible with minimal chip count. GLINT implements sophisticated rendering operations in silicon, including Gouraud shading, depth buffering, anti-aliasing and texture mapping.

3Dlabs is a worldwide OEM 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, simulation, virtual reality, interactive TV and video games. 3Dlabs Inc., headquartered in San Jose, Calif., was founded in April 1994, following a management buyout of Du Pont Pixel, and is privately owned.