3Dlabs Ships Speed-Enhanced PERMEDIA and PERMEDIA NT 2D/3D/Video Processors with 40% Performance Boost

Business Wire, Nov 14, 1996

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 14, 1996--3Dlabs Inc. today announced that 3Dlabs' PERMEDIA and PERMEDIA NT 3D graphics processors are immediately available at a clock speed enabling a 40% increase in performance compared to previously available chips. The new -80 PERMEDIA delivers 800,000 50 pixel, texture-mapped polygons-per-second and 42 million texture-mapped pixels-per-second -- figures which include true perspective correction, bilinear-filtering, fogging and dithering.

The new -80 class parts are available to existing and new OEM customers at the same price as the original PERMEDIA for incorporation into multimedia accelerator board designs that can retail for under $200.

The faster frequency provides a direct increase in graphics performance through PERMEDIA'S use of the new SGRAM (Synchronous Graphics RAM) memory architecture. SGRAM supports access times much faster than the standard EDO DRAM used with most competitive graphics processors in this price class. All graphics operations, including 2D, 3D and video, as well as the standard 3D APIs supported by PERMEDIA, all benefit from this increased performance.

3D API's currently supported on PERMEDIA include Direct3D, OpenGL, Heidi, QuickDraw 3D, QuickDraw 3D RAVE and Creative's CGL.

The increased clock also boosts PERMEDIA NT, which is a bundle of PERMEDIA and the GLINT Delta geometry pipeline processor. The GLINT Delta is capable of processing up to one million vertices-per-second, making it possible to achieve PERMEDIA's peak performance of 800K polygons-per-second in a PC using an inexpensive PERMEDIA NT board, which are anticipated to retail for under $300.

Technical Information

PERMEDIA is a fully-integrated single-chip 3D processor that combines mainstream, no-compromise 2D functionality and performance with second-generation 3D graphics. PERMEDIA-based boards provide fast SVGA, 64-bit 2D windows acceleration delivering over 35 million Winmarks, 30 frames-per-second video playback, over 40 million texture-mapped, bilinear-filtered 3D pixels-per-second through standard APIs, and can still cost under $200.

PERMEDIA's well-balanced 3D capabilities also include Gouraud shading, optional Z-buffering, full-scene anti-aliasing, specular texture highlights, fogging, blending, translucency, overlays and stencils at a rate of up to 800,000 50 pixel triangles-per-second. PERMEDIA contains a compact and highly-optimized unified graphics engine, and uses Synchronous Memory that provides substantially more memory bandwidth than expensive fast-access EDO DRAMs. PERMEDIA can also use SDRAM on boards where low-cost is paramount, or SGRAM for superior performance. When used with SGRAM, PERMEDIA fully exploits the advanced SGRAM modes including block-fill support with plane-shaded polygon models.

With a fully synchronous 64-bit external data path, PERMEDIA has a memory bandwidth of over 660 MBytes/sec. PERMEDIA is a bus-mastering device fully conforming to PCI Bus (Version 2.1) specifications.

Implemented as a PCI bridge with full PCI master and DMA capability, GLINT Delta acts as a front-end processor to GLINT or PERMEDIA and processes the setup calculations for 3D primitives such as lines and polygons, including all 3D interpolant floating-point slope calculations. GLINT Delta's advanced design includes support for texture-mapping, anti-aliasing and 16, 24 or 32 bit Z buffering -- all with high-precision, sub-pixel accuracy. GLINT Delta's processing throughput supports up to 1 million texture-mapped, Z-buffered polygons-per-second. GLINT Delta supports full byte-swapping and is compatible with PC or Macintosh systems.

PERMEDIA is fully OpenGL-compliant, allowing the combination of PERMEDIA and GLINT Delta, named PERMEDIA NT, to be used to deliver professional-class 3D graphics acceleration at a new low price-point.

Company Information

3Dlabs is a leading innovator and supplier of high-performance, cost-effective graphics semiconductors, software and related technology designed to bring workstation-class 3D graphics to the PC. The company has introduced five 3D graphics processors over the last two years with price, performance and functionality designed to meet the needs of different PC-based 3D market segments.

3Dlabs markets and sells its 3D graphics technology worldwide, both through merchant chip sales and technology licensing arrangements. The company's offerings include merchant 3D graphics processors, embeddable processor cores, reference software drivers for major PC operating systems and 3D APIs, reference board designs and broad application software support. -0-

Note to Editors: 3Dlabs and GLINT are registered trademarks and PERMEDIA is a trademark of 3Dlabs Inc. Ltd. Microsoft, Windows, Direct3D, DirectDraw are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. OpenGL is a registered trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc. Macintosh is a registered trademark and QuickDraw is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. All other trademarks are acknowledged and recognized.