All Major Graphics Cards Manufacturers Now Include OpenGL 2.0 API Support; Top
Software Vendor Optimizes Shading Language for Cross-Platform Photorealistic
3D Imaging Capabilities
LOS ANGELES, SIGGRAPH 2005, Aug. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Silicon
Graphics (NYSE: SGI) and the OpenGL Architecture Review Board (ARB) today
announced at the SIGGRAPH 2005 industry tradeshow the impressive industry
adoption of the OpenGL(R) 2.0 API and the OpenGL Shading Language. 3Dlabs, ATI
and NVIDIA, the top manufacturers of real-time 3D graphics cards, have all
released products supporting the OpenGL 2.0 specification and the OpenGL
Shading Language, ensuring its widespread availability. UGS, one of the
largest CAD engineering software developers, has also included OpenGL Shading
Language in its products, allowing its customers to create the highest level
of realism ever achieved.
One of the most important and enduring standards in the computer industry,
the OpenGL 2.0 API represents a revolution in graphics by providing high-level
access to the programmable features of modern graphics processors and is an
important step in creating photo-realistic, real-time 3D graphics. Since its
introduction in 2003, the OpenGL Shading Language has become the most widely
supported shading language for developing interactive graphics and
visualization applications, with implementations for UNIX(R), Microsoft(R)
Windows(R), Linux(R), and other operating systems. This wide compatibility
enables developers to readily move their work across most major commercial
operating systems and hardware platforms. OpenGL Shading Language was
extensively field tested within the proven ARB standardization process before
its wide release one year ago.
"In today's cross-platform hardware environment, everything from cinematic
special effects and training simulations, to medical imaging and CAD
engineering requires programming across a mix of Linux, UNIX, Apple, Sun and
Windows platforms," said Shawn Underwood, director of marketing, Visual
Systems Group, SGI. "The broad availability of the OpenGL Shading Language on
graphics accelerator cards enables software developers to program freely
across hardware, enabling ISVs to write once and deploy everywhere and giving
consumers the choice of any hardware device they want."
"The emergence of programmable graphics hardware was the driving force
behind developing OpenGL 2.0 and OpenGL Shading Language -- the largest
advancements ever made to OpenGL," said Randi Rost, director of developer
relations at 3Dlabs. "3Dlabs played a key role in the standardization process
and, as an active member of the OpenGL ARB, we support both OpenGL 2.0 and
OpenGL Shading Language in our award-winning 3Dlabs Wildcat(R) Realizm(TM)
graphics accelerators and drivers, which offer cinematic-quality realism and
real-time performance."
"The important synergy between graphics hardware and software emphasizes
the importance of a strong and robust industry standard like OpenGL 2.0.
Giving developers the power of programmable shaders regardless of platform
means that we will start to see the true capabilities of today's graphics
processors being realized in a range of applications," said Rick Bergman,
senior vice president and general manager, PC Business Unit, ATI. "By
continuing to drive and support open standards as part of the OpenGL ARB, ATI
is putting the tools in place for developers and end users to fully leverage
the possibilities of the graphics industry."
The widespread adoption of OpenGL has made it the standard for the digital
content community," stated Jeff Brown, general manager for NVIDIA professional
products. "Since its inception, NVIDIA graphics hardware has leveraged this
industry standard API to produce photo-realistic, real-time graphics on our
programmable GPUs. OpenGL 2.0, with its advanced shading language, will allow
developers to create even more compelling content using the latest generation
of NVIDIA hardware."
With the inclusion of OpenGL Shading Language into the core of OpenGL API,
software developers can be assured every graphics card that is OpenGL 2.0
compliant will showcase this capability regardless of who supports the OS.
"UGS delivers high-end CAD, Lifecycle Visualization and Product Lifecycle
Management solutions on over 15 platforms, including all major operating
systems and hardware vendors, from a single source code base," said Kent
Kingston, Teamcenter Visualization Product Manager, UGS. "Many of our
customers work in mixed Windows and UNIX environments and require smooth
operation in and between both. No other graphics API approaches the
flexibility, ubiquity and performance of OpenGL 2.0."
OpenGL BOF at SIGGRAPH
SIGGRAPH attendees are invited to join the OpenGL BOF (Birds of a Feather)
to be held Wednesday, August 3, from 6 - 8 p.m., in the Sierra Ballroom of the
Wilshire Grand Hotel, in downtown Los Angeles to learn about the latest plans
for future features in the OpenGL API.
Most Widely Adopted Graphics Standard
With more than 60 hardware developer licensees, the OpenGL API has the
broadest industry support of any openly licensed graphics API. In 1992, the
Architecture Review Board was formed to govern the evolution and ongoing
development of the OpenGL API, a technology originally created by SGI, and now
the industry's leading open, platform-independent standard for
professional-quality 3D graphics.
The 9 Promoting members of the OpenGL ARB are 3Dlabs, Apple, ATI, Dell
Inc., IBM Corporation, Intel Corporation, NVIDIA Corporation, Sun
Microsystems, Inc. and Silicon Graphics Inc. In addition to the Promoting
members and Contributors, OpenGL is universally licensed throughout the
graphics hardware developer community. More information on the OpenGL 2.0 API
and its supporters will be made available on the OpenGL Web site at
http://www.opengl.org.
About OpenGL
The OpenGL graphics system specification allows developers to incorporate
a broad set of rendering, texture mapping, special effects and other powerful
visualization functions and provides a graphics pipeline that allows
unfettered access to graphics hardware acceleration. Since its introduction by
SGI in 1992, OpenGL has become the industry's most widely used and supported
3D and 2D graphics API. OpenGL is supported on all major computer platforms,
including AIX(R), HP-UX(R), IRIX(R), Linux(R), Mac(R) OS X, Microsoft(R)
Windows(R) 2000 and Windows(R) XP and Solaris(TM). The OpenGL ARB governs the
evolution and ongoing development of the OpenGL API. With broad industry
support, OpenGL is the vendor-neutral, graphics standard that enables 3D
graphics on multiple platforms ranging from cell-phones to supercomputers.
OpenGL's consistent backwards compatibility has created a stable foundation
for sophisticated graphics on a wide variety of operating systems for over 10
years. OpenGL is constantly evolving state-of-the-art functionality to
efficiently support a wide array of applications from consumer games to
professional design applications.
NOTE: Silicon Graphics, SGI, OpenGL, IRIX, the SGI cube and the SGI logo
are registered trademarks and The Source of Innovation and Discovery is a
trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc., in the United States and/or other
countries worldwide. All company and/or product names may be trade names,
trademarks and/or registered trademarks of the respective owners with which
they are associated.
MEDIA CONTACT
Lisa Pistacchio
pistacchio@sgi.com
650-933-5683
SGI PR HOTLINE
650-933-7777
SGI PR FACSIMILE
650-933-0283
SOURCE SGI
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Related links:
http://www.opengl.org
CONTACT:
Lisa Pistacchio of SGI, +1-650-933-5683, or
pistacchio@sgi.com, or SGI PR HOTLINE, +1-650-933-7777, or SGI PR
FACSIMILE, +1-650-933-0283
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