RenderMorphics and Yamaha Announce Partnership for Low-Cost, Real-Time 3D Graphics; Reality Lab API Optimized for Yamaha Rendering Polygon Accelerator Chip, New Alliance Provides Developers with Complete 3D Solution

Business Wire, Jan 6, 1995

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 6, 1995--RenderMorphics Ltd., (London, United Kingdom) today announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that it will develop an optimized driver for the Reality Lab application programming interface (API) supporting Yamaha's new 3D accelerator chip, the YGV611 Rendering Polygon Accelerator (RPA).

Reality Lab is the leading 3D API for developers seeking the most advanced 3D performance in software. In tandem with the first 3D hardware-based accelerator from Yamaha, a leader in multimedia technology, new breakthroughs in real-time 3D applications will be enabled.

"Our YGV611 is unmatched in offering developers a low-cost platform for 3D," said Henry Choy, product manager at Yamaha Systems Technology (San Jose, Calif.). "We feel that the combination of our chip with Reality Lab's extraordinary speed and functionality will jump-start the market for 3D as a mainstream product. RenderMorphics and Yamaha have the the relationship and alliances with the leading ISV's to make 3D happen on the desktop, and software is a necessity for enabling this market to reach critical mass. We feel that Reality Lab and the YGV611 is a great combination and Reality Lab is a terrific overall complement to our product."

"The Rendering Polygon Accelerator is a great design," said Kate Seekings, vice president of marketing for RenderMorphics. "We're delighted to offer Reality Lab for the Yamaha chip and we are sure the market will embrace the RPA with the same enthusiasm as the other leading Yamaha design -- the OPL family that is the standard chip for PC sound cards. The low cost of RPA-based adapters will bring real-time 3D graphics to end-users at an affordable price-point and Reality Lab will take full advantage of Yamaha's new coprocessor. Reality Lab has become the de-facto standard for developers seeking fast, feature-rich 3D and our customer base speaks for itself. We're proud to add Yamaha to our list of partners."

RPA:

The RPA (YGV611) will provide low-cost, high-speed graphics rendering in 2D or 3D for PCs or low-end workstations. It performs Gouraud shading and texture mapping at 210k polygons per second (50-pixel polygons) and also performs hidden surface removal, video capture and Bit Block Transfer (BitBLT). The frame buffer interface is 128 bits wide (64-bit interleaved) for high-performance graphics. A 16 or 32-bit wide host bus interface operates at up to 33 MHz. The YGV611 supports graphics resolutions at up to 1280 x 1024, with 16-bit color. The design uses CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) processing for low power consumption and is available as a 240 SQFP (square quad flat pack) package. RPA has full texture mapping capabilities and represents the only shipping 3D accelerator with this capability. A lower-cost version of the RPA is forthcoming from Yamaha.

Reality Lab:

Reality Lab, which independent evaluations have shown to be the world's most advanced real-time 3D rendering library, is the culmination of over three years development in creating a real-time, feature-rich 3D software rendering library.

The Application Programming Interface (API) offers specific ease-of-use features that dramatically simplify the design and incorporation of real-time 3D into a wide range of programming environments.

Using Reality Lab, real-time 3D graphics are possible at speeds on the PC that were previously capable only from workstation-class systems. Reality Lab is object-oriented in structure and has a fully cross-platform approach, including support for PCs (DOS, Windows, Windows NT), Macintosh, UNIX, the Sony PSX (Playstation) and future 64-bit game systems from Sega.

As a C-based library, Reality Lab enables portable source code that can be recompiled on a different platform from its initial creation with no extra effort by developers. Reality Lab's modular design enables transparent accommodation of specific hardware at any stage of the rendering pipeline.

Company Information:

RenderMorphics Ltd. provides outstanding real-time interactive 3D rendering technology on desktop PCs for a variety of applications, including games, multimedia, interactive entertainment, virtual reality, visualization and CAD. Reality Lab represents the company's high-performance, real-time 3D rendering library and flagship product, and supports multiple platforms as well as 3D graphics acceleration hardware from a wide range of manufacturers.

Yamaha Corporation of America, Systems Technology Division was founded to manufacture and market integrated circuits, board-level products and complete systems to OEMs and VARs. The division's product line includes custom and semicustom ASICs, standard circuits for graphics, communications and audio applications and CD Recorder products.

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CONTACT: RenderMorphics Ltd.

             Kate Seekings, 408/486-6956
             info@render.com
             Yamaha YST Div.
             Henry Choy, 408/467-2355
             henry@yamaha.mhs.compuserve.com
             The Benjamin Group Inc. (for RenderMorphics)
             Jonathan Hirshon/Mary Sharpless, 408/559-6090
             jhirshon@sv.tbgi.com
             The Lekas Group (for Yamaha)
             Sandra Park, 415/948-8907
             sandra@infoserv.com