Company Press Release
Source: Number Nine Visual Technology Corporation
Sys Technology Selects Number Nine's Revolution(TM) 3D
For New Personal Computers
Design Win Continues Early Success of New Graphics Board
LEXINGTON, Mass., Sept. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Number Nine Visual Technology Corp. (Nasdaq:NINE) today announced that Sys Technology Inc. will configure PCI and AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) versions of Number Nine's award-winning Revolution(TM) 3D graphics accelerator as standard equipment in the Sys Premier(TM) line of personal computers and as an upgrade option to all Sys Workstation(TM) personal workstations.
This design-win continues the early success of Number Nine's recently announced Revolution 3D graphics controller, which at its June debut at PC Expo captured the highly coveted ``Best of PC Expo '97 Award for Best Multimedia Hardware'' from Byte Magazine.
``The careful selection of components is critical to our success,'' said Ed Leckliter, vice president of research and development at Sys Technology. ``Graphics are a critical and integral component in
our performance mix, becoming one of the few differentiating items left to deliver world class performance to our customers.''
Sys Technology's Sys Performance(TM) 233M2 system, integrating the Revolution 3D, was recently rated the performance leader in a system round-up by PC Magazine, posting ``unmatched'' performance in WinStones and various WinMark tests. ``This system also turned in the best Graphics WinMarks score, thanks mainly to its 8MB Number Nine Revolution 3D graphics board,'' PC Magazine reported.
The Revolution 3D is designed for mainstream business applications, mission-critical engineering, multimedia development and publishing applications, as well as specialized custom application environments that include medical imaging, radar and modeling. The board is based on Number Nine's new 128-bit ``Ticket to Ride'' graphics processor and integrates three 128-bit graphics engines to deliver industry-leading 3D, 2D and MPEG-video performance -- unlike graphics boards that focus on only 3D, or only on 2D, or only video.
The new AGP version of the Revolution 3D supports Intel's just-introduced 440LX chip set which supports a new high speed, dedicated graphics port that is isolated from the conventional PCI
peripheral bus to boost graphics performance.
Mike Romanies, vice president of marketing for Number Nine, said: ``Graphics workstations have utilized a dedicated graphics bus for more than a decade. The new AGP bus moves additional workstation capabilities to the WinTel platform for the masses. The PCI version of the Revolution 3D, rated the fastest 2D graphics card in independent testing by market researcher Mercury Research Inc., rivaled in 3D testing only by specialized 3D gaming boards, delivers significant
upgrade capabilities to Pentium, Pentium Pro and Pentium II systems.''
Larry McIntosh, vice president of OEM sales for Number Nine, said, ``The commitment by Sys Technology is indicative of the ability of mid-sized direct marketers to quickly identify and implement
new technologies that bring performance and value to their customers.''
The Revolution 3D is offered with 4 or 8-megabytes of high speed, dual ported WRAM graphics memory, expandable to 16MB for increased 3D performance and 3D display resolution support.
The board's ``Ticket to Ride'' processor includes a 650-MFLOPS (million floating point operations per second) 3D setup engine. An on-chip, dedicated 8K texture cache delivers high-quality, lighting
fast 3D graphics. This combination of power allows the Revolution 3D to provide world-class 3D, without compromising standard Windows capabilities or MPEG acceleration.
The Revolution 3D supports a full complement of both OpenGL(TM) and Direct3D(TM) features, including hardware textured-mapped triangles, 32-bit precision Z-buffering fogging, specular lighting,
dithering, bi-linear and tri-linear filtering with sustainable performance as 3D features are enabled by software applications.
The Revolution 3D includes display drivers and Number Nine's HawkEye(R) Display Utilities, both of which have passed Microsoft's rigorous Windows Hardware Quality Labs testing to earn WHQL
certification. This delivers to users Number Nine's 15 years of proven hardware expertise and Microsoft- assured reliability for Windows 95 and Windows NT.
About Sys Technology
Sys Technology Inc., systechnology.com, is a system integrator providing high-performance, high quality, IBM-compatible personal computers, servers, workstations and
related components. The privately held company has been in business since 1988. Primary manufacturing, sales, administrative, and warehousing facilities are located in Cypress, California.
The company's products include complete Intel(R), AMD(R), and Cyrix(R) processor based
systems. Systems are marketed under the Sys Value Edition(TM), Sys Performance(TM), Sys
Premier(TM), and Sys Workstation(TM) trademarks. The company markets directly to
corporations, institutions, government organizations and end users throughout the world.
About Number Nine
Number Nine Visual Technology Corporation, nine.com, is a leading supplier of
high-performance visual technology solutions, including video/graphics accelerator subsystems, chips
and productivity-enhancing software. Number Nine is one of the first companies to offer its users
drivers certified by Microsoft's Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL). The company is a
pioneer in PC graphics, delivering the first 128-bit graphics accelerator, the first 256-color and 16.8
million-color cards, and three consecutive lines of 128-bit graphics chips and boards. Number Nine
is a publicly held company (Nasdaq:NINE) headquartered in Lexington, Massachusetts, with
research and development, sales and/or marketing offices in London, England; Madrid, Spain;
Munich, Germany; Redmond, Washington; and Tokyo, Japan.
Number Nine and HawkEye are registered trademarks, and Revolution and Ticket To Ride are
trademarks of Number Nine Visual Technology Corporation. Microsoft Windows, Direct3D and
NT are registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. OpenGL is a trademark of
Silicon Graphics Inc. All other trademarks are properties of their respective companies. All rights
reserved.
This press release contains forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are based on management's current
expectations and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties which could cause actual
results to differ materially from those described herein, depending on such factors as are described
under ``Certain Factors That May Affect Future Results of Operation'' in the Company's Quarterly
Report on Form 10-Q for its second quarter, 1997, ending June 28, 1997, as filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission
SOURCE: Number Nine Visual Technology Corporation |
