3Dlabs Redefines PC Graphics with PERMEDIA Family of Graphics Processors for Pervasive 3D; High-performance 2D, 3D, video and VGA acceleration on a single chip; PERMEDIA boards will run Creative Labs 3D Blaster games

Business Wire, Oct 23, 1995

Microsoft Corp. are using 3Dlabs-based hardware as a primary development platform for the Direct 3D(TM) and Reality Lab(TM) real-time 3D APIs. PERMEDIA provides 100% hardware rasterization acceleration for the Microsoft APIs under Windows(R) 95 - providing levels of 3D performance far exceeding that of any games console on the market.

"3DLabs is a long-established affiliate of Microsoft in bringing hardware acceleration to our full range of 3D APIs, from Reality Lab and Direct 3D to OpenGL(R)," said Kate Seekings, 3D technology evangelist at Microsoft. "PERMEDIA is a significant step in making 3D acceleration pervasive on the Windows-based desktop, with unprecedented levels of performance and functionality. Microsoft plans to support the PERMEDIA architecture, helping to ensure that users of Windows can take full advantage of its capabilities through Microsoft's 3D APIs."

"3Dlabs is the leading supplier of 3D silicon on the PC and we are now redefining the dynamics of that market," said Osman Kent, president and CEO of 3Dlabs. "With the introduction of PERMEDIA, 3Dlabs is providing a mainstream, pervasive 3D/multimedia chip that can replace not only today's high-end VGA products, but also any 3D game-oriented silicon. While many companies are trying to bring their first game silicon to life, we have already delivered robust silicon through GLINT and 3D Blaster in both the professional and entertainment market segments. Our vision now is to make world-class 3D available on every new PC, be it in the home, office or plane. Our licensing program and merchant chips in the PERMEDIA family are moving us aggressively toward this goal."

The first-generation, low-cost 3D chip from 3Dlabs was used exclusively by Creative Labs on their 3D Blaster(TM) board, which will be shipping in volume this Christmas. Creative plans to use custom versions of PERMEDIA for future boards in the 3D Blaster family.

Creative has been closely involved in the PERMEDIA design process and has worked with 3Dlabs to make 3D Blaster titles run on any PERMEDIA-based board without modification. This is possible due to the functional compatibility between 3D Blaster and PERMEDIA, and industry standard APIs - such as Microsoft's Reality Lab and Direct 3D. Many titles shipping today on 3D Blaster use Creative's CGL graphics library. Creative has licensed CGL to 3Dlabs - enabling CGL-based games titles to also run unmodified on PERMEDIA based cards.

"The PERMEDIA architecture is the ideal platform for our continuing relationship with 3Dlabs," said Hock Leow, vice president of the video and graphics product group at Creative. "PERMEDIA not only provides outstanding 3D performance for games and other pervasive 3D applications, but also includes the high performance 2D and video functionality we need to make our boards excel at accelerating all the graphics applications used by our customers. We are committed to working with 3Dlabs to make PERMEDIA the leading 3D architecture for pervasive 3D. Licensing our software to 3Dlabs provides a tremendous momentum to PERMEDIA by providing an immediate collection of top quality games for PERMEDIA-based boards."