2012-12-21-248

3DLabs Wildcat Realizm Technology

3Dlabs Inc., Ltd., a leading innovator in professional visual processing,today announced at the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) 2004 tradeshow in Las Vegas, Nevada, a major breakthrough in graphics architecture:Wildcat® Realizm? technology. The architecture combines a next-generation VisualProcessing Unit (VPU) and a unique Vertex Scalability Unit (VSU). These worktogether to enable a software-compatible family of graphics accelerators rangingfrom a single VPU AGP 8x solution to a unique dual-VPU configuration, whichtakes full advantage of the enhanced bandwidth of PCI Express. Wildcat Realizmis specifically designed to provide unmatched graphics productivity for CAD, DCCand visualization professionals. It represents a significant advancement inaccelerating industrial-strength shader programs written in high-level shadinglanguages such as the OpenGL® Shading Language and Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 HLSL.A range of products based on the Wildcat Realizm architecture is expected to beavailable mid-2004. 3Dlabs is a wholly owned subsidiary of Creative TechnologyLtd. (NASDAQ: CREAF).

"3Dlabs revolutionized the workstation graphics industry when it delivered thefirst compiler-friendly VPU and initiated the creation of the OpenGL ShadingLanguage," said Hock Leow, president of 3Dlabs. "Wildcat Realizm technologybuilds on that significant innovation by creating a uniquely scalablearchitecture with unmatched programmability. Our innovative VSU outperformsordinary PCI Express bridge chips by adding significant geometry processingpower and supporting multiple VPUs to enable high-level shader programs thatdeliver new levels of professional productivity."

Packed with more than 150 million transistors, the Wildcat Realizm VPU removesany boundaries to running professional-grade shader programs to generatecinematic-quality visuals in real time. Wildcat Realizm shatters the fragmentshader programmability limits of previous architectures by supporting up to aquarter of a million instructions stored in virtual memory and offering advancedflow control. Wildcat Realizm technology implements a full floating-point VPUpipeline, with up to full 32-bit floating point per component accuracy anddirect display of floating point pixels - an industry first.

The Wildcat Realizm VSU provides extreme geometry performance while enabling adual-VPU configuration to provide unmatched high-end graphics solutions. TheWildcat Realizm VSU receives graphics commands at full bandwidth from a 16 lanePCI Express interface and processes vertices with an incredible 67 billionfloating point operations per second in a powerful SIMD (Single InstructionMultiple Data) array of highly optimized vector processors. The VSU is then ableto drive two VPUs at full bandwidth over a 8.4GB/sec interface while optimallydistributing graphical primitives between the two VPUs to achieve a genuinedoubling of both geometry and fill-rate performance.

"Wildcat Realizm technology will significantly advance the flexibility andcomplexity of graphics VPUs, to enable higher quality images and interactivity,"said Woll Newall, product manager at LightWork Design. "By working closely with3Dlabs we have ensured that LightWork's Real-time provides the perfect solutionfor application developers to take best advantage of these advances."

"Hands down, the new Wildcat Realizm technology is truly an amazing engineeringfeat and incredible to see in action," said Antony Hervo, solution partnermanager at SolidWorks Corporation. "SolidWorks® 2004 RealView customers canrealize maximum speed and raw power when they team the OpenGL Shading Languageand 3Dlabs' Wildcat Realizm technology together."

"Maya professionals require power, pixel accuracy and an unencumbered outlet forcreativity," said Rob Hoffmann, senior Maya manager for Alias. "3Dlabs has ahistory of exceptional products that deliver the performance our customersrequire. Based on that history, we can't wait to see the performance, qualityand functionality that Wildcat Realizm technology has for high performancegraphics professionals."


Wildcat Realizm Features and Benefits

AGP 8x and PCI Express Support: Built with every graphics professional in mind,3Dlabs Wildcat Realizm technology will be available for both AGP and PCI Expresssystems.

Flexible Floating-Point Processing: Wildcat Realizm technology can process up to128-bit pixels with full 32-bit floating point per component accuracy for thehighest color fidelity. 128-bit pixels can be seamlessly converted to and from64-bit pixels with 16-bit floating point per component accuracy that provides afull floating-point computing environment with optimized storage requirements.

Compiler-friendly SIMD Architecture: Wildcat Realizm's processor resources areorganized in regular and orthogonal SIMD arrays to ensure that 3Dlabs' compliersproduce efficient code that runs the most advanced shading programs.

Virtual Shader Program Storage: The largest shader programs can be effortlesslycompiled and executed with Wildcat Realizm technology's massive program sizelimits of up to 256K of instructions stored in virtual memory.

Efficient Hierarchical Z-buffer: Hierarchical Z-buffer culling rapidlydetermines which pixels are displayed or hidden so the processor does not wasteclock cycles rendering portions of the scene that are not visible.

Sophisticated Texture Access: The Wildcat Realizm VPU can access up to 32textures simultaneously to enable highly sophisticated fragment shader programsto be written that efficiently process a large number of inputs in a singlepass.

Performance-boosting DirectBurst? Technology: The Wildcat Realizm VSU supportsonboard DirectBurst memory that transparently stores rendering commands andgeometry data on the graphics accelerator to significantly accelerate anygeometry-intensive application.
Hardware-accelerated Imaging Pipeline: Wildcat Realizm technology features animaging pipeline that is completely hardware accelerated to avoid imageprocessing bottlenecks.

Extended Virtual Memory: Wildcat Realizm technology supports an extended virtualmemory space up to 256 GB for leveraging the capabilities of 64-bit systems.With full-demand paging, designers can seamlessly manipulate larger modelsfaster than before.

Multiple High-resolution Displays: Wildcat Realizm supports up to two,high-bandwidth dual-link DVI-I outputs that are ideal for driving multiplehigh-quality professional displays from a single graphics accelerator includingtoday's high-end 9.2 Megapixel displays.

Multiview Capabilities: Wildcat Realizm technology integrates 3Dlabs'fifth-generation Multiview Genlock and Framelock capabilities for seamlesssynchronization and edge blending between displays and systems for visualsimulation, virtual reality and broadcast applications.

Comprehensive Operating System Support: Wildcat Realizm also offers support forboth 32-bit and 64-bit platforms running Windows® and Linux® operating systems.