Cirrus buys Austek patents, 3Dlabs teams with Creative in 3D graphics

Electronic News, April 25, 1994 by Katie Hottinger

SAN JOSE, CALIF.--Cirrus Logic and 3Dlabs, a new startup formed through a management buyout of Du Pont Pixel, are maneuvering separately to bring high-performance 3D graphics to PC platforms.

Cirrus, Electronic News has learned, has bought the graphics acceleration technology of Fremont-based Austek Microsystems. As part of its 3D strategy, Cirrus last week also licensed U.K.-based Argonaut Software's application program interface (API) game technology. Meanwhile, 3Dlabs last week formed a pact with the U.S. subsidiary of Creative Technology to design custom 3D graphics accelerators based on its upcoming GLiNT chips for board-level products.

With Microsoft expected to support the pixel processing layers of the OpenGL standard in its next release of Windows NT, many industry observers believe high-performance 3D graphics applications will begin moving to PCs. So far, they have largely been in the domain of workstations.

Cost will be a big factor, though, in how widespread 3D applications become on PCs. While the technical market for simulation applications is one area of interest, Creative and Cirrus are both targeting low-cost 3D games and educational applications as well.

Cirrus, already a big player in the graphics acceleration market, has bought Austek's patents for an undisclosed sum; in addition, six of Austek's former development engineers will continue working on the technology for Cirrus. It hopes to demo a 3D accelerator product at this year's Siggraph conference in August. Austek had been selling off its other product lines earlier this year, saying it would concentrate on developing the 3D graphics technology (EN, Feb. 14). Austek announced its A1060 graphics accelerator chip at Fall Comdex last year.

Cirrus said it will work with video game vetern Argonaut to provide API support. "The API developed by Argonaut provides a 3D framework and imaging rendering capability in software that can run on a PC," Cirrus User Interface Co. President Douglas J. Bartek said. "Combining that technology with our VGA products will provide system vendors with an inexpensive way to upgrade existing designs."

Argonaut managing director Jez San said the deal "will help promote a standard software interface among board manufacturers. This, in turn, will spur the development of computer games that use high-performance 3D graphics."

3Dlabs' first chips--the 300SX and the 300TX GLiNT processors, are due out later this year. 3Dlabs will initially sample the GLiNT 300SX, which will be aimed at IBM-compatible PCs and accelerator boards, in August. The 300SX will be packaged in a 304-pin QFP; 3Dlabs did not reveal pricing. The 300TX, offering higher quality texturing, will sample by the end of the year.

Singapore-based Creative--also taking a minority stake in 3Dlabs--plans to customize the graphics accelerators for its multimedia products. It has been a big player in the add-on audio board market and recently licensed Spectron Microsystem's SPOX operating system (EN, April 18.)

Creative's video products VP Hock Leow said the company is bullish on the future of 3D in the PC arena.

Although Creative will be using 3Dlabs' chip in future multimedia add-in cards, he said it was 'too premature' to discuss possible products or when they would become available.

At 3Dlabs, the company said the two GLiNT processors will offer the functionally of a high-end Silicon Graphic Indigo graphics board-set on one chip and cost less than the VRAM frame buffer memory. The graphics chips will provide 24-bit 2D and 3D acceleration, the company said, and interface with the PCI local bus.

One of the main hurdles for 3D graphics to move to PC platforms will be the availability of software. "We're undertaking the development of a series of optimized drivers that we can deliver to our customers to get them to market as quickly as possible," 3Dlabs marketing VP Neil Trevett said. Conforming to the Open GL standard, GLiNT will also operate in other 3D application program interfaces (APIs), such as PEXlib, XGL and Hoops. OpenGL was originally developed by Silicon Graphics but is now supported by the likes of Digital Equipment. IBM, Intel and Intergraph.

As for memory requirement, Mr. Trevett said the size of the GLiNT's on-chip frame buffer equals that of 2D graphics card, but the family requires 2-4MB VRAM memory off-chip, Mr. Trevett said, to hold the off-screen information associated with each pixel. "There's no real way around that with 3D graphics."

The dithering unit in the processor can drive an 8- or 16-bit frame buffer. "You would be halving or quartering memory while still retaining most of the quality of a 24-bit display," Mr. Trevett said. The GLiNT 300SX and 300TX will provide 300K of shaded, Z-buffered, antialiased and translucent polygons a second and texture mapping acceleration.

Originally formed as a startup in 1984, Du Pont Pixel was acquired in 1988 as a subsidiary of DuPont Corp. It has marketed board-level accelerators for Sun workstations. The management buyout was led by the founders of Pixel, including Osman kent, president and CEO, and Yavuz Ahiska, VP of business development.