Formac's ProFormance 4 Card Uses Parallel Workstation Graphics Processors From
3Dlabs; Drives Dual Displays From a Single AGP Card
SUNNYVALE, Calif., July 25 /PRNewswire/ -- 3Dlabs(R), Inc. (Nasdaq: TDDD)
today announced that it has further strengthened its strategic relationship
with Formac by collaborating to assist Formac in bringing its new ProFormance
4(TM) board to market. This board uses 3Dlabs' GLINT(R) Gamma G2 and dual
128-bit GLINT R3 processors to bring industrial-strength, high-end workstation
graphics to Apple's Power Macintosh. As previously announced, 3Dlabs sells
its silicon to selected board manufacturers, such as Formac, to enable
additive and complementary markets. The ProFormance 4 is expected to commence
shipment at the end of Q3, 2000.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19990623/TDDDLOGO )
Designed for use in any AGP-based Mac, the ProFormance 4 is a high-end,
workstation graphics board capable of flawlessly accelerating the most
demanding 3D design applications. The board uses two GLINT R3 processors and
a single GLINT Gamma G2 geometry processor that accelerates 100% of the
OpenGL(R) geometry and lighting pipeline in silicon, to implement a
high-performance, industrial-strength 256-bit graphics accelerator. The
ProFormance 4's flexible dual-processor architecture and 64MB of on-board
memory allows the board to be used in two modes. In single screen mode both
processors are efficiently focused into one frame buffer for maximum
rasterization performance. In dual screen mode, the ProFormance 4 can directly
drive two independent displays each with a dedicated rasterizer, effectively
acting as two high-end 32MB graphics boards.
In addition to robust OpenGL performance, the ProFormance 4 board provides
video acceleration, including MPEG-2 motion compensation and YUV to RGB
conversion in hardware. The ProFormance 4 also provides full connectivity for
LVDS, DVI and VGA standards with two exchangeable modules and a connector for
Formac's ProCyber 3D virtual reality glasses. ProCyber 3D allows users to run
even the most complex 3D modelling and rendering applications flicker free in
virtual reality.
"3Dlabs are the market leaders in professional graphics on the Windows
platform -- and we are pleased to be able to add our expertise to bring their
technology to Mac," said Oliver Bergmann, CEO of Formac Electronic Inc. "The
power of the 3Dlabs silicon is awesome. Mac users have never before had
access to 3Dlabs' high-end workstation graphics acceleration and we believe
this board will transform the Mac into a platform capable of running the most
demanding 3D authoring applications."
"With the resurgence of the Mac platform, the imminent arrival of OS X and
industrial-strength 3D applications such as Maya, we expect to see significant
demand for true workstation-grade graphics on the Mac platform," said
Neil Trevett, vice president of marketing at 3Dlabs. "Formac's hardware
design technical expertise and driver capabilities make them an excellent
partner for 3Dlabs to empower the Apple Macintosh user with our no compromise
professional graphics processors."
About Formac
Based in Pleasanton, California, Formac Electronic Inc. was founded in
1987 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Formac Elektronik GmbH, Berlin,
Germany. The company has offices throughout Europe and the US where it has
been an award-winning supplier of Apple Macintosh accelerator boards for more
than a decade. Formac offers advanced graphics boards, G3-Processor boards,
SCSI-Controllers and TV-Tuners for the Apple Macintosh platform. Formac
sells its award-winning ProFormance 3 products to leading system OEMs,
including Silicon Graphics. For more information visit:
http://www.formac.com
About 3Dlabs
Founded in 1994, 3Dlabs is a leading supplier of integrated hardware and
software graphics accelerator solutions for workstations and design
professionals. 3Dlabs develops silicon, boards and software drivers to create
products that effectively meet the performance and quality needs of users who
rely on graphics for their productivity. 3Dlabs sells its award-winning
Oxygen and Wildcat products to leading system OEMs including Compaq, Dell,
Fujitsu, Fujitsu-Siemens, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intergraph Computer
Systems, Hitachi, NEC and Sun Microsystems, through an international
distributor and reseller network and directly to end-users at 3Dlabs' online
store. The performance-leading Wildcat and high volume Oxygen accelerator
families target complementary segments of the Computer Aided Design (CAD),
Digital Content Creation (DCC), geophysical, medical and visual simulation
markets, resulting in the broadest range of professional graphics products in
the industry today. 3Dlabs has operations in Alabama, California, Colorado,
Massachusetts, Texas, Washington, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom. For
more information, please visit http://www.3dlabs.com.
Forward Looking Statement
Various matters set forth in this press release, such as statements
relating to the expected performance characteristics, specifications, market
position, availability, market acceptance and expected shipment date of
ProFormance 4 are forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to
risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, 3Dlabs' ability to
manufacture, produce and deliver ProFormance 4 in a timely, cost-effective and
commercially-viable manner; the ability of 3Dlabs to obtain and keep design
wins for this product; the ability of ProFormance 4 to adequately meet the
price/performance requirements of its customers; the impact and pricing of
competitive products; the introduction of alternative technological advances
and other risks detailed from time-to-time in 3Dlabs' SEC reports.
NOTE: 3Dlabs, Wildcat, Oxygen, Permedia, SuperScene, ParaScale,
DirectBurst and PowerThreads are registered trademarks or trademarks of 3Dlabs
Ltd., 3Dlabs Inc. Ltd., or 3Dlabs Inc. in the United States and/or other
countries. ProFormance is a trademark of Formac GMBH. OpenGL is a trademark
of SGI Inc. All other product names, trademarks, and/or company names are
used solely for identification and belong to their respective owners.
SOURCE 3Dlabs, Inc.
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Related links:
http://www.3dlabs.com
Photo Notes:
NewsCom:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19990623/TDDDLOGO
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org
PRN Photo Desk, 888-776-6555 or 201-369-3467
CONTACT:
Neil Trevett, Vice President, Marketing of
3Dlabs, 408-530-4750, or neil.trevett@3dlabs.com; or Robert
Altmann, Product Marketing of Formac Electronic Inc.,
925-251-0100, ext. 370, or raltmann@formac.com
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