News out a little while ago: (BSNS WIRE) E&S Ships One Of The First 3D Solutions For Linux; E&S Lightning 1200LX Board
Availability and Software Support Leads Competition
Business Editors/Computer Writers
LinuxWorld 2000
SALT LAKE CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 31, 2000--Evans &
Sutherland (E&S(R)) (Nasdaq: ESCC) Monday announced that the company
is now shipping the E&S Lightning 1200LX(TM), one of the first fully
hardware-accelerated 3D solutions for the desktop Linux market.
E&S Lightning 1200LX delivers to Linux users OpenGL graphics
features that were previously available only on UNIX and NT-based
systems. In addition, E&S Lightning 1200LX supports a number of design
and visualization applications for Linux, including Side Effects
Software's Houdini 4.0 and Engineering Animation Inc.'s WorldToolKit
9.0.
The addition of Linux capability demonstrates the company's
commitment to continually providing upgrades and improvements to its
existing graphics cards, offering customers enhanced capability and
performance without requiring them to purchase new hardware.
Based on E&S's innovative REALimage(R) technology, the Lighting
1200LX offers professional workstation graphics features, including
24-bit Z-buffering, MIP-mapped texturing, antialiased lines,
transparency, fog, and overlay planes.
It also provides resolutions up to 1280x1024 at true color, with
performance rates up to 4.0 million triangles per second and a
sustained fill rate of 90 Mpixels/second. E&S originally developed
REALimage technology to bridge the gap between traditional UNIX
workstations and PCs. Today, REALimage takes this a step further to
Linux.
"While many leading companies are announcing plans to support the
Linux operating system, E&S is the first and only company delivering
Linux technology for the professional workstation graphics customer,"
said Pratish Shah, vice president of marketing for the E&S Workstation
Graphics Division.
"Development of the Linux driver for our graphics accelerators is
consistent with our commitment to continuing to enhance and add
options to our boards, allowing our customers to upgrade their
capabilities without investing in new hardware. Our cards keep getting
better and better."
Xi Graphics
"We are pleased to be working with E&S to bring
workstation-class, professional 3D graphics on Linux and Intel
hardware to the market," Thomas Roell, chief executive officer and
chief technical officer of Xi Graphics.
"With PC workstations using the E&S Lightning 1200LX subsystem
and our 3D Accelerated-X product, CAD/CAM engineers, animators, 3D
designers, and game developers have a very powerful platform to create
advanced 3D effects without trading off quality for performance."
Evans & Sutherland has partnered with Xi Graphics to develop the
Linux driver. Xi Graphics develops and markets, high-performance
commercial X display servers for use with Linux and UNIX operating
systems.
The company's base product line, the Accelerated-X brand of X
servers, is a stable, robust foundation for Graphical User Interfaces
that are often required for Linux and UNIX operating systems
installations that operate on a desktop or laptop computer.
Hardware Vendors Support
E&S has also been collaborating with BOXX Technologies and
TriStar Computer Corp. to bring an open GL graphics board to the Linux
market that gives hardware users features such as quality shaded
performance and overlay plane support.
BOXX Technologies
"We are excited to work with E&S to help bring high performance,
standards-compliant products to the Linux workstation space," said
Todd Bryant, BOXX Technologies president and CEO.
"We believe that graphics acceleration is an integral part of
Linux's success on the desktop. With E&S Lightning 1200LX , users will
have true OpenGL acceleration on Linux platforms with top anti-aliased
line quality, overlay plane support, and shaded performance."
BOXX Technologies is a leading provider of hardware and software
tools for digital content creation and distribution on the
Microsoft(R) Windows NT(R) and Linux operating systems for the 3D,
animation, film, and HD broadcast markets.
The BOXX suite of solutions, which include 3DBOXX(TM),
RenderBOXX(TM), and FusionBOXX(TM) HD, are complete systems for 3D,
rendering, film, and HDTV. Fortified with E&S's accelerators, BOXX
workstations greatly reduce production times and increase output
quality.
TriStar Computer Corp.
According to Patrick Maderia, president & CEO of TriStar
Computer Corp., "TriStar Computer is excited about the addition of
Linux support by E&S. We have been supporting Linux on our
Workstations and Servers for the past 12 months and believe that E&S
is showing great foresight in leading the charge into this market."
TriStar is a privately held original equipment manufacturer of
high-performance Windows NT graphics workstations and servers. TriStar
offers four major product lines, with various models and custom
configurations designed to meet an array of user needs: StarStation,
PowerStation, StudioStation, StarServer. These systems are custom
built for professionals in graphics-intensive disciplines, including:
architectural design, mechanical design, engineering, desktop
publishing, 3D animation, digital video editing, Internet web site
development, video post production and software development.
Software Vendors Support
Today, E&S is working with The Sense8 Product Line of Engineering
Animation Inc. and Side Effects Software to ensure E&S Lightning
1200LX support for new Linux-based graphics applications.
Engineering Animation Inc.
"E&S's Linux support finally provides the real-time 3D graphics
market with one of the first solid Linux hardware-accelerated graphics
solutions," said Tom Coull, executive director of EAI's Sense8 Product
Line.
"The demand for Linux support has been mounting, inhibited only
by the lack of viable 3D graphics hardware in the marketplace. The
combination of WorldToolKit and E&S' Linux hardware opens an entire
platform to 3D developers."
Engineering Animation Inc.'s (EAI) Sense8 Product Line is the
leading provider of scalable real-time 3D interactive software
development tools. EAI is developing a Linux version of its
WorldToolKit simulation software, a portable, cross-platform software
development system used for building high-performance, real-time,
integrated 3D applications.
Side Effects Software
"Evans & Sutherland technology helped us to provide Houdini on
Linux as a viable platform for high-end 3D graphics," said
Paul Salvini, chief technology officer for Side Effects Software.
"Their ongoing commitment to quality Linux production solutions
is evident in the release of the Lightning 1200LX. We look forward to
our continued involvement with E&S to offer powerful solutions for the
Linux graphics community."
Side Effects Software, a world leader in advanced 3D graphics and
special effects software, announced the availability of the Linux
version of their product, Houdini 4.0 last week. This new
Linux-compliant application offers the same look, feel, and feature
set as the IRIX and Windows NT versions of Houdini.
Pricing and Availability
The Lightning 1200LX solution is available this month for US $489
through E&S resellers/OEMs as well as ESDirect (www.es.com). Current
E&S Lightning 1200 customers can upgrade to the Lightning 1200LX
solution for $100. Upgrade information is available by calling
1800-show-me-the-penguin or through ESDirect.
E&S will be demonstrating the E&S Lightning 1200LX at LinuxWorld
Expo in New York City on Feb. 2-4 in Atipa's booth No. 855 and in
VA Linux's booth No. 719 and from Feb. 1-3 at Linux Expo in Paris,
Level 2, Palais Des Congres in Evans & Sutherland booth.
About Evans & Sutherland
Evans & Sutherland develops and manufactures hardware and
software to produce highly realistic 3D images. E&S business units
deliver high-quality visual systems for simulation and training in
defense and commercial applications, graphics systems for
high-performance workstations, and related applications throughout the
world.
Through its acquisition of San Jose-based AccelGraphics in June
1998, E&S expanded its workstation graphics offerings to include
board-level products. Visit the E&S web page at www.es.com.
E&S is a registered trademark, and E&S Tornado 3000, E&S
Lightning 1200, and DYNAMICgeometry are trademarks of Evans &
Sutherland Computer Corp., Salt Lake City. All other trade names or
marks are the properties of their respective owners.
--30--sig/ix*
CONTACT: Evans & Sutherland Computer Corp., Salt Lake City
Joan Mitchell, 801/588-1000
Fax: 801/588-4538
e-mail: jmitchel@es.com
or
Porter Novelli Convergence Group
Jacquelyn Dara, 617/450-4300
Fax: 617/450-4343
e-mail: jacquelyn.dara@pnicg.com
KEYWORD: UTAH NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL EUROPE
INDUSTRY KEYWORD: COMPUTERS/ELECTRONICS HARDWARE SOFTWARE PRODUCT
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