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Technology Stocks : Creative Labs (CREAF) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Savoirman who wrote (10703)	4/2/1998 8:11:00 AM
From: Market Tracker	Respond to of 13925

Creative Labs Introduces DirectX Extensions for 3D Audio at Annual Developer Forum, Creativity '98 Joint Effort With Microsoft and QSound Accelerates 3D Audio Title Development MILPITAS, Calif., April 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Creative Labs, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREAF), the world's leading provider of multimedia products for the PC, announced today that the company has been working in collaboration with Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and QSound to provide software developers with common property sets for extensions to DirectSound and DirectSound3D. Creative will implement these extensions across its Sound Blaster(R) PCI audio products. These new extensions will make it easier for developers to incorporate high-quality 3D audio into their titles. In addition, this enables support for hardware accelerators that provide the added power to deliver realistic 3D audio while speeding up game play and interactivity. Introduced this week, at Creative's annual developer forum, Creativity '98, the new property set extensions were enthusiastically received by an audience of over 200 developers. The new set of extensions to the API, initiated by Creative, offers developers access to DirectSound3D and "Environmental Audio" for the addition of ambiance to the audio environment. Additionally, both Creative and QSound are working with Microsoft to define a standard implementation for hardware buffer management. The combination of these new extensions enable the proliferation of accelerated DirectSound and DirectSound3D enhanced titles. "We applaud Creative's efforts in working with us and the rest of the industry to build these standardized extensions to Microsoft's DirectSound APIs," said Kevin Bachus, product manager for DirectX at Microsoft. "By helping extend the DirectSound standard, Creative has ensured a simple yet compelling solution for developers and consumers." "This teamwork effort sets the pace for our partnership with Microsoft moving forward," said Hock Leow, vice president of the multimedia group at Creative. "We intend to continue driving the development effort to establish and harmonize industry standards that benefit the end user and make developing awesome 3D audio content easier for the community." The new sets of extensions build on the existing DirectSound and DirectSound3D API, are universal and can be used by all of the available audio hardware platforms. A proposed draft of the property sets was released during the Creativity '98 conference, and will be made available on both Creative's and Microsoft's Web sites. The SDK incorporating the new property sets will be made available by the end of the month. Creative believes that these property sets will more closely align the development community with DirectSound. These new additions will be implemented across Creative's new Sound Blaster(R) PCI audio products. "This is very exciting news for the developer community," said David Aldridge, advanced software engineer at Origin Systems. "These new additions are making the inclusion of Creative's 3D audio technology far more compelling and easier to design into our games." Creative Technology Ltd. develops, manufactures and markets a wide array of advanced multimedia solutions for the PC, entertainment, education, music and productivity tools markets. Creative's products are marketed through the OEM, Systems Integrator and retail channels under a variety of trademarks, including the "Blaster" family name. Sound Blaster(R) has become the multimedia industry's de facto audio standard. Sound Blaster is an audio platform consisting of a sound card or chipset, software drivers and bundled software applications that enable PCs to produce high quality audio. Creative's corporate headquarters and primary manufacturing are based in Singapore, with sales, distribution and research and development being carried out through an extensive, global network of subsidiaries located in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. NOTE: Sound Blaster is a registered trademark of Creative Technology Ltd. in the U.S. and other countries. All other product names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners and are hereby recognized as such. SOURCE Creative Labs, Inc. CONTACT: Theresa Pulido, 408-428-2329, or tpulido@soundblaster.com, or George Thorn, Developer Relations, 408-428-6600, or gthorn@soundblaster.com, both of Creative Labs, Inc. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To: Savoirman who wrote (10703)	4/4/1998 8:59:00 AM
From: B.K. Ohneis	Respond to of 13925

<<CREAF has been working with MSFT!!! See PR Newswire for details. I dunno how to get a link. Briefly both have been developing extensions to DirectSound and DirectSound3D. The extensions have been welcomed by developers. Will be available in all CREAF PCI solutions. Now we know why they took their time. OK, hang on to your seats. MSFT + CNBC + blowout earnings = BIG TIME RERATING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hopefully ...>> this may be good but perhaps with a cloudy lining! Aren't you afraid that anytime MSFT gets involved with you, you risk having your technology hi-jacked by them, just as Java is risking becoming Windows-Java? by the way, i am still waiting for the buy-back (or perhaps buy out?). Where is it? I am becoming a little impatient lately.